Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart
by Agent Archangel
Summary: Eric McCormick, a teen fascinated with the legends of the old mansion at the top of the hill, decides to go exploring. Little does he know, his life would soon be thrust into peril. Friends will be found, but danger and bloodthirsty fiends await at every turn. Can Eric escape the dark mansion and its deadly occupants, or will he perish along the way?
1. Chapter 1

_Greetings, my dear readers. Thank you for your generous patience with this Fanfiction. The full explanation of why I had been inactive as of lately will be explained at the end of the Fanfic. As you no doubt are aware, I am in the process of re-writing this Fanfiction, as well as another. I will be making this a Horror based Fanfiction with slight romance, rather than pure smut. In essence, in order to keep such a Fanfiction from being too repetitive, I've made a few... changes._

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Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter 1

The Old Mansion

Ever since he was a young boy, Eric McCormick had been intrigued by the mansion at the top of the mountain. It was as if something in that mansion called for him… Nobody seemed to know when or who built the mansion, just that it had been there for ages. Standing watch over the village down below. However, everyone was told to never venture up that mountain path. The elders always told wild stories about the mansion. Each story was different; some would tell fables of a spirit that walked the path, her throat slashed open, blood soaking her snow-white blouse, her skin paler than the moon itself. She would wander the road, slashing the throats of all that came across her path. One even told the local kids of a local girl about sixteen, who had wandered up the same path long ago.

She bravely went up the mountain path, and about a month later, came back down. The girl walked without clothes, and numerous deep slices adorned her bare body, leaving a trail bloodied trail down the mountain. She had torn her hair out, and gouged both of her eyes out. Black sludge dripped from both her mangled eyes and from her mouth. Yet she was smiling. Smiling as if she were enjoying a lovely sunny day. Then she collapsed. Eric never believed the story, the news would have been abuzz with something like that.

Eric looked up at the trail sign and then back to the sleepy village, it was early enough for Eric to be confident about not being spotted and he pushed all of the dark thoughts back.

' _Just superstition,_ ' He tried to reassure himself, but deep down, he had a dim feeling this would be his only chance to turn around.

Eric slung off his backpack and rummaged through the contents in one final check, food for a week, sleeping supplies and a toothbrush and toothpaste. He then nodded and zipped up the backpack as he gathered up his courage and began his ascent up the mountain trail. He continued until he reached a bridge, there was a lovely waterfall nearby and he stopped and gazed into the water below. Suddenly in the reflection he saw something move and spun around, only to find nothing. Eric continued his journey and finally reached the top of the mountain, standing underneath the shadow of the imposing mansion; he quivered. As Eric stood, gazing at the dilapidated house. He shivered, as though ice had replaced his spine. The chilly air enveloped his entire body. The multiple layer of clothing could not protect against the deathly cold. The walkway leading up to house were cracked. Weeds and dandelions poked out from these cracks. Red roses grown wildly in thick batches by the gate. The moonlight cast a ghoulish glow on the house. Vines formed a twisted maze upon the side of house, reaching their tentacles towards the roof. Eric and knocked on the door. The double doors creaked ominously open and he ventured hesitantly into the eerie mansion with a dreadful sense of foreboding. The door begrudgingly creaked open. A musty, dank order creep into my nose. The house was dead silent, except for a fee intermittent creaks and moans. With a loud screech, the doors slammed shut and Eric could not pull them apart, he turned around and froze in shock as his heart pounded within his chest.

Floating in the air near the broken but elaborate chandelier, was a young girl. She had long blue hair that seemed to sway in a gentle, unseen breeze and her skin was also tinted a slight shade of blue as well. Her feet were bare and she wore a dress that was tattered at the bottom. Eric's breath caught in fear.

' _I, I'm going to die now..._ ' he thought to himself and prepared himself for the worst amount of pain in his short life.

"Hello, I am Spooky." The ghostly girl introduced herself, and Eric sat there stunned, "And this is my home, in order for you to leave here, you must make it through one thousand rooms."

Eric looked up at her more closely and found his voice. "A thousand rooms, why?"

The ghost girl looked down to him and gave him a sly smirk; Eric was beginning to feel uneasy.

"One thousand rooms, it can't be that hard," The specter said with an odd tinge to her voice, "Can you find what lies at the end? Or is there even an end? Cuz I, don't really know..."

"What?" Eric asked, a little puzzled, it seemed the ghost girl was beginning to have trouble speaking to him and her gaze was focused somewhere else.

"Anyway, just... just go" The specter stammered as she floated upwards through the ceiling, leaving Eric in a stunned silence.

He looked at the single door in the room in front and walked over to it and entered the next room. He tried the door he had just entered from, but it wouldn't open again. Eric then took stock of his surroundings, he was in an empty, 50' x 50 cm room. There were two doors leading out of the room. Eric tried the door on the right, but it seemed to be stuck. He then tried the door in the front of the room and entered the next room.

"Well, at least the rooms seem small enough," Eric sighed, the next room wasn't anything special, more like a hall really, "If all the rooms are like this, I think I might make it out before I die of starvation..."

He proceeded through the next door and into the next room, and sighed. This room was much different than those before. The room was significantly bigger as well. To his right, Eric could see another room through a doorway without a door. The doorway in front of him led off into a hallway. Eric took a right. The room again was nothing special, and he tried the door to his left. No use, it wouldn't budge. He backtracked and went through the hallway, suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. With a hasty turn, Eric tried to catch the silent stalker behind him. Only to find nothing. Maybe he was imagining things? Eric sighed, and entered the next room. This one had a note on a table.

 **'At first this place just seemed cute, but I've been here for days now... I'm feeling quite parched now, and I keep getting this feeling like I am being watched by something. This is not romantic at all...'** The note read, and Eric stared in confusion.

"Why the hell would _anyone_ think this place is romantic?" He questioned aloud, setting down the note.

Eric exited the room, and wound up in a weird looking room. He was sure that he was inside the home, but it looked like a part of the wall seemed to be a window looking outside. That is until he touched the glass, realizing only then that the scenery had been painted on. Clever. He tried the room to his right, and found the door to be stuck, so he entered through the doorway across from where he had entered. There was another note on a table, which also had a skull on it.

 **'I know something is following me. But I feel like I am prancing through the same rooms over and over... Hopefully leaving notes as breadcrumbs will prove I am making progress and reaching some destination. I just hope I don't run out of ink. I am dreadfully thirsty.'** The second not read.

Eric shivered, maybe he didn't imagine being stalked through the halls after all. No… He could feel a presence behind him now, there was no mistaking it. He spun around and lashed out, his fist catching nothing but air. The mansion was toying with him.

"I'm just imagining things." Eric reassured himself, placing the note down.

Eric exited the room and paused. Between the two doors on the far end of the empty room, Spooky was reclining in one of the chairs, with a grin on her face. His heart thudded in his chest. His hands shook. Spooky floated closer to Eric, and the air around him seemed to freeze.

"Well! I didn't think you'd get here so quickly!" Spooky said to him in a cheerful tone, and then pointing to the door on the left. "Anyways, that door needs a key, and there's a key somewhere here… Good luck!"

Eric's mouth hung open as Spooky rose up through the ceiling, she had such a frightful aura a moment ago, and then turned a full 180 into being sort of cute… What the heck was up with Spooky? He took the door on the left. He felt wrong the moment the door closed behind him. Not sick, not alert, just something felt off. The silence was deafening. He passed through the small little hallway and on into the next room. A group of draconic faces have been carved into the north wall, and someone had scrawled "The Wyrm Queen shall destroy magic forever when the Hydra is broken" next to them.

"Weird…" Eric commented, keeping his eyes on the faces.

Their hollow eyes seemed to follow his every movement. He hurried on out of the room. He breezed by the next room and stopped. Behind him was a worn stone statue, in front of him, the hallway split in two directions. Left or right. Eric chose to go right. The moment he turned the corner, he happened across a door. Next to the door, was an image of Spooky giving him a "thumbs up", and a message written in a dark color also read "NO DON'T!". Eric decided to leave the door alone. He walked on down the halls, there was a noticeable chill in the air now. At the end of the hallway, a solitary candle, itself half lost in darkness, was mounted upon the. A lump formed in Eric's throat. Its tapered bulbs cast shadows, transforming the candle into the visage of some dark god who mocked the light. Perhaps the dreaded deity was Lucifer himself, Eric thought to himself.

Again, he felt as if something was terribly wrong. Yet he couldn't place it. There was a slight draft in the area, or so he hoped. Faint whispers seemed to be in the breeze.

The moment Eric took a step forwards, a skeleton cutout popped out with an ear-piercing and eerie screech.

"Holy fucking shit!" Eric cursed loudly in terror, his heart beating rapidly and his breathing heavy, "Jesus Christ that scared the hell out of me..." There was a note on the skeleton, and Eric picked it up.

 **'Ink... Not quite quenching my thirst. Taste is terrible, stains are terrible. I don't think drinking it was a very romantic idea.'** The note read. Eric's eyes widened in surprise, a man had come into town one day looking at all the "Romantic" spots in the small village and ventured up the mountain, he was ever seen again. Eric scoffed a little, _'Romantic my ass, I just had a damn heart attack.'_

"This is stupid." He growled to himself.

Something growled back. Eric took off, not wanting to meet whatever had just made that guttural growl. Eric sprinted as fast as he could, yet he knew that, eventually, he would have to stop. The beast was right behind him, and it was gaining on him, its powerful legs pumping and its bared teeth gleaming with vicious menace. A painful ache curled in his abdomen as Eric rounded a corner, every step he took it got slightly worse, until it was like a poison that was eating him up from the inside. Perhaps it was burning a hole in his stomach. Eric came to another intersection, and quickly glanced left. A door! He burst through the door and into a room. Eric instantly went through a doorway, and hid behind a wall. There was another door that went back to the same room, and Eric cautiously opened it up, waiting for his chance to pull a fast one on the monster. Snarling filled the room, but nothing had come in…

Something glinted in the corner of his eye, and Eric picked up a coin. He threw it out of the sub room he was in, and nothing happened as it clanked in the corner. Eric's gaze settled on something in the far upper corner of the room he had thrown the coin, and his eyes widened. No. No way. Eric calmly walked out of his hiding place. There was no monster. The growling had come from hidden speakers.

"Clever." Eric grunted, his heartbeat returning to normal. "Real clever."

Eric tried the door on the left. There was a note on the wall. Eric tried to make out the writing, but it had faded. There was nothing else in the room, and so he backtracked. His confidence returning, Eric let out a small smirk. This had to be some sort of test. Spooky was probably just a hologram. It made sense, since everything else seemed to be a fake. Eric passed the door with the image of Spooky, concluding that the door was fake after trying the doorknob. He proceeded forwards, and, Screeeeeech! A cardboard cutout screamed at Eric as it popped out of the wall, he jumped a mile high while cursing up a storm worthy of a sailor's mouth and his reflexes caused him to punch the offending object. The board cut up his knuckles and he stared at the light blue, teardrop shaped ghost cutout.

"..." Eric stared longer, looking down to his bloody knuckles and back up to the smiling cutout, a tic mark forming on his forehead and he twitched, the cutout kept smiling back at him, "Stop mocking me!" He yelled irritably at the cutout and stomped through the door without looking back at the cutout, fuming and embarrassed, leaving the room through the door.

The next room was connected to a hallway with a few visible dead ends, and so Eric entered the main room. A foul odor filled the south side of the room, and a charred blanket lied in the south-east corner of the room. Someone had also scrawled "You cannot kill it with magic" on the south wall. Eric turned to find a tile mosaic of ghoulish carnage covering the north wall. He wanted to vomit right then and there, the burn of bile rising in his throat. Eric tore his eyes away from the horrid imagery, sure that he would have lasting nightmares about seeing that mural, and cheese. To his right, there was a table, and on it, a silver key. Eric hastily took the key, and left the room. Something wasn't right. He froze. The broken door was now open. Acting upon morbid curiosity, Eric walked towards the door. That is until he saw the fresh blood.

Eric quickly turned the corner and went back to the main room, inserting the key and unlocking the door. He entered the next room, and heard the door re-lock. It didn't matter. He still had the… Wait… The key had vanished from Eric's hand.

"B… But how?" Eric wondered, beginning to feel uneasy. "I know I didn't drop it…"

The door behind him shuddered, and a low growl was heard on the other side. Eric hastily exited the small hallway-like room, and into the next. This room was different from the others he had previously encountered. It felt older almost, and Eric began to take a look around. He went into another room via a doorway, and found a treasure chest. In the chest was a small golden coin and a poem that read.

 **"Before Old Charon I now stand. A bushel of berries for this ferryman. The guardsman of fate expresses his guilt. For the broken promises he has spilt, forget the italics, of my brash remark, ford the wide styx, sings the deathly lark. A limerick of longing hollows my mind, the verbal flogging hardens my heart from the kind. His hand reaches out, and I give him his due, he offers me one piece of advice, each for my gold."**

Eric realized that the coin was a sort-of key, and he held onto it tightly, moving on through the next doorway. His heart froze. There was a statue of Death in the far end of the room. Cloaked in a black robe, and his hand outstretched to Eric. The statue seemed to be waiting, and so Eric shakily walked up to it, lacing the coin in the statue's hand. Almost immediately, the right arm began to move, a boney finger pointing at the wall. There was an intricate diagram of a mechanical trap on the wall behind Eric. It had not been there before. Eric snapped a picture of the diagram. A hand firmly grasped his shoulder and he yelled as he was forced to turn around. He stared straight into the face of Death. His face. All faces, and nobody's face. The room had grown so cold now, that it physically hurt. It wasn't a natural chill, no, it was something much more sinister.

Death's robes glimmered with shades of cool colors, as if he was wearing a universe. His wings were grey and trailing, Eric could not move; his body would not respond. The shadows were moving on their own accord. Some shadows were like dark smoke, and others like a grey mist, thrashing around on the edge of the room as if they were desperately trying to get away from them. Eric stared at Death. Then Death opened his mouth.

 **"SIX SHALL COME, SIX SHALL GO. TWO SHALL LEAVE, FOUR SHALL STAY. ALL WILL COME TO ME."** Death spoke to Eric.

Just listening to that voice made Eric want to keel over. He felt as if his soul were being drawn to Death. He was sure Death could just simply order him to die, and Eric's soul would have obeyed without hesitation or question. The white mist swirled around Eric, obscuring Death. Eric suddenly bolted awake while clutching his heart, panting and gasping for air. He looked around the room, his heart beating like a jackhammer and a drop of sweat trickled from his brow, dripping off his nose and onto the cool, stony ground.

"Wh-What just…" Eric stammered, staring at the statue.

He left the room, shaken, and cold. Eric entered the next room and stopped in his tracks. There was a trap here. He recognized the room's layout. It was a simple trap, but one guaranteed to work if a person didn't have any knowledge of it. This made things more complicated, he would have to search every room if given the opportunity. Eric followed the path on the picture on his phone, careful to keep on the path. The next few rooms were a breeze, yet Eric didn't let his guard down. His hopes for this mansion being some sort of test were dashed a long time ago, and he felt as if he had stepped into something far more dangerous than he had ever anticipated.

He opened a door and ended up in a subterranean elevator, inside there were a few windows where one could only really touch the rock, a table with a chair and what appeared to be a bed, there was a cute cat poster with the quote "Hang in there" on the wall which Eric deadpanned at, and a button on the far side next to an opening about as tall and wide as a door. Eric decided to rest for a bit and pulled out a bottle of water, careful on how much he needed to consume to save his supplies for the rest of his journey into the mansion. Something groaned above the elevator and Eric frantically sprinted over to the button and slammed his hand down upon the big red button repeatedly, ever so slowly did the elevator begin its descent deeper within the twisted mansion. Eric did not stop panicking until the elevator groaned to a halt and a rusty metal door was in front, he opened the door and closed it rapidly, not wanting to find out what had made the noise.

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 **The mansion has changed, and with it, its perils. A unique twist has been given to some rooms, and soon, a more sinister twist shall be revealed. Right now, I have a literal map of each floor, and notes about certain... changes, thanks to a dungeon creator. Soon, things will become dire, and the outcome of each choice means survival, or a fate worse than death. Just what does the sinister Spooky have in store for our young protagonist? Find out next in chapter two of Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart.** Dont **be a stranger, and leave a comment/review! Agent** Archange **, signing out.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

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Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter 2

Mucilaginous Malevolence

Eric found himself in a strange new room. This room had different tiling, wallpaper, and a large cage on one side of the room. The area now had a more decayed look to it, and it even looked like the deep green wallpaper covering the walls was rotting in places. Instead of tiling like the other rooms on the first level, the ground was made of uneven flagstone, which made running more difficult. To his right, Eric noticed that there was a wall-length cage holding a skeleton. In front of him were two doors. Eric picked the door on the left, but it would not budge.

"Locked…" Eric muttered to himself, and walked over to the other door. "Oh God, ew…"

The moment his hand touched the door knob, he pulled away from it. Strands of dark green slime connected his hands to the door knob. He wiped his hand on his shorts with a shudder. Eric reluctantly entered the next room. Already, he felt concerned for his health, as a dark emerald sludge was dripping down the far wall. The only other door was on the right wall, and Eric entered a hallway. The first step he took caused him to lose balance and scrape his hand on the flagstone floor. Not only would running be incredibly difficult, the chances of slipping would be very likely as well.

' _Great, if anything chases me, I'm screwed._ ' Eric grumbled to himself.

Eric picked himself up, and continued onwards. "SCREEEE!" A cardboard cutout of a bar of soap with a smiley face launched out at him, causing his heartrate to skyrocket with a string of curses.

"You think this is funny? Don't you?" Eric growled, staring lividly at the cutout.

He rounded a corner and avoided touching more sludge dripping from the walls. The next room was eerily different from the others. It had cobblestone flooring, undisturbed light blue wallpaper, a dresser, and a bed with dark blue sheets. Eric took stock of the surroundings, and noticed that against all odds, there was a window in the room. Yet he had to be about 30-40 feet underground… He quickly moved on and stopped dead in his tracks. Eric had nearly fallen into a vat of glowing green slime, quickly rounding about the vat, he exited through the door on the left. Whatever it was, had to have been radioactive. Nothing good ever glowed like that. The next room Eric entered was even worse than the last one. After walking through a small hall, he noticed an opening to a room on his right.

At the very far end of the room was a massive brain. It had to be the size of a greyhound, the canine grey hound, not the bus. It floated in a tank of light, mint-green liquid and had tentacles protruding from the underside of it. Around it, were massive servers, each literally the size of a 4X4 cube. On the floor near the brain tank, were several dark bloodstains. Eric stepped into the room. It was absolutely freezing in the room, his breath steamed and goosebumps immediately raised on his arms. Something inexplicably drew him to the brain in the tank. Step by step, Eric drew closer and closer, raising a timid hand out in front of him.

His mind was assaulted with images the moment his hand touched the cool glass. Eric jerked back and turned away immediately. Shaking and panicked, he ran out of the room. Once again, he wound up in a hallway. It was difficult for him to sprint all out, but a controlled run seemed to work just fine. Yet Eric wasn't too sure what would happen if he were caught running down the hall and one of those carboard cutouts activated. The next room seemed… off… It was too normal.

' _Get a grip, you're just being paranoid.'_ Eric chided himself mentally.

The room had nothing in it, but also no signs of any of the gross slime, or decay that came with the slime. There were only three doors in the room as well, one on the far end of the south wall leading south, and one on the far-left of the wall near the corner of the room, and one directly behind Eric. There was a massive gilded, elaborate chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and polished, checkered tiles beneath his feet. Eric tried the door closest to him, preferring to stay away from the far door at the corner, but to no avail. It was locked. Eric skirted around the chandelier, not wanting to take any chances, entering the next room. Once again, the layout had changed. There were two doors on the wall in front of Eric, the wallpaper had changed to cute drawings of Spooky holding a bloodied knife, and the floor was covered in bloodstains. Eric sprinted to the door on his right.

The next room was like the rooms from before, having a cobblestone floor and tiled walls. There was a large puddle of goop on the floor, and a table with a note at the far end. Eric scooted around the sticky puddle of grossness, and picked up the note from the table.

 **"Spouting, Splashing, Soaking... Innards Ingest, Invoking. Nailing Never stops the Choking."** It read, and the writing seemed to have been written in blood. Suddenly, something that sounded a mix in between a stabbed man's dying breath as he choked up on his own blood, and a gurgling faucet full of muck echoed out from behind Eric.

He turned around almost immediately. A slimy, dark green arm blasted out of the puddle on the ground, each finger on the hand lethal talons. Eric bolted out of the room, not wanting to meet the monster emerging from the gunk. He dashed down the slick hallway, and kept running and running. By sheer luck, Eric tripped up and flew forwards as the monster partially burst through the wall and took a swing at him a moment later, green goop splattering everywhere. Eric sailed over a puddle of goop, just narrowly avoiding a grasping arm, not able to catch a good look at the monster as he sprinted away. The next room was a trap, and he knew it. There was a puddle of goop near the only exit. There was also a hallway connected by two doorways, and Eric sprang into action.

Eric sprinted to the first entryway to the connecting hallway, and slung off his backpack, testing the goo with it. With a little bit of effort, he was able to pull the backpack free. Good, he wouldn't be stuck immediately. A choking groan signified the monster entering the room. This time, Eric was able to get a good look at it as it merged through the doorway. The monster had a semi-solid, humanoid figure that was dark-green in color, with a bright green outline. Various bits of its body appeared to be of a gel-like substance, while the rest of it was solid. It had a slightly emaciated appearance, sporting a protruding rib cage and collar bones. It lacked a face, save for a lipless, gaping mouth, which showed its long teeth. The monster had no legs or feet, and its torso simply extended downwards, ending in a rounded shape. Its left hand was held up, as if reaching for the Eric, while the right arm ended in a rounded stump at the wrist.

On another note, it was slow. No wonder Eric was able to outrun it so easily. He waited for it to get close to him, and then sailed over the puddle of muck. Eric lead it around the bend, and sprinted to the only door. The goop he had stepped in slowed him considerably, but with the distance he had put between the monster, Eric wasn't too concerned. Not until he entered the next room.

"Oh come on!" Eric groaned in exasperation. "That's not fair at all!"

The room was massive. A maze-like pathway traversed an endless looking abyss, this would slow him down considerably. Claws raked Eric's back and he took off, reaching around a curve and stopping only to see whether the goop ghost had to follow the pathways too. Much to his dismay, however, it did not. He dashed off, keeping an eye out for any dead ends. Left, right, left… shit! Eric hit a dead end, but instead of backtracking, as the goop ghost had still kept right behind him, Eric sailed over the gap, landing on the correct platform. Pain shot up and down his ankle, and he nearly fell face first onto the floor.

"Shit! Fuck!" Eric cursed, hobbling along.

He reached the doorway, and a grinding noise nearly gave him a heart attack. Eric limped up to what appeared to be a map. There were layers of rooms, all moving about in a random, chaotic fashion. Maybe that's why the goop ghost hadn't come in yet, lucky for him. Eric slowly sat down, and inspected his right ankle. He winced as he took his shoe off, it was definitely painful. Although his ankle did not appear to be broken, there was a great deal of swelling. He had positively sprained it. There was no doubt there. Eric almost broke out in laughter. At first, he would never have imagined ever having to use his makeshift splint material, now, he was glad to have packed so thoroughly. Irony at its finest. Taking out the rope and small boards of wood, Eric winced as he bound his ankle with a makeshift splint. He then dug out a bottle of Advil, and downed three pills in a single gulp. It would help lessen the pain, but not cut it out completely. His only hope was to be able to find somewhere safe to rest.

Eric sighed as he used the wall to help himself up. He was definitely not prepared for how the day would turn out. In fact, he wondered just how long he had been in the mansion. Days? Weeks? Eric took out his cellphone, just his luck, no reception. Why didn't he think of using it before? Much to his relief, only a day had passed.

He sighed once more. What would his parents be thinking? Would they be worried about him? Were they searching for him now? Eric shook his head. There was no time for such thoughts. He would get through the mansion, at any cost. He was going to see his family again. Dying was not an option for him. Eric trudged on with newfound perseverance overpowering the fear and pain he was in. The next room was unlike any he had seen before. There were three doorways, and a white fog hung in the air, obscuring whatever lied beyond the doorways. Eric took a gamble and chose the doorway on the right. There was just a wall there… The left doorway was the same. Eric entered the doorway on the far end, and ended up in the same place… or so he thought. The moment he backtracked, a "Donk!" was heard, and he ended up in the same four-way room.

Eric took a left, and a "Ding!" was heard. The next room looked the same, but he had the feeling this maze would be trial and error. Eric tried right again, but another wrong note played. Right, straight, and then left. He went left again, but got another wrong note. Right, straight, left, straight. Eric now ended up in a room like the one he had stared in, exiting through the door with relief.

"Good God I hope nothing chases me through that maze…" Eric grumbled to himself aloud.

The next room was much less complex, thankfully, and he took a flight of stairs down to the next door. He ended up in a very small hallway, with a door on his right and a door on his left. The door on his left was locked, so Eric sighed and took the door on his right. Eric traveled through the small hallway, and saw the brain in the jar. Bubbles floated up from the bottom of the tank, and the massive brain gently bobbed up and down, its tentacles swaying as if they were in a calm breeze. His hand touched the glass, wait… Eric looked around… He was in the room now. He had been so fixated on the brain, he hadn't even noticed himself being inexorably drawn to it.

"The hell?" Eric pulled away from the tank, turning around. "The fuck?!"

The entrance behind him had been walled up, trapping him inside. Eric swiveled back around to face the brain. More images assaulted his mind, and he pulled his hand away from the tank, falling on his back. Eric clutched his head and scrambled for the exit, the illusion gone and his heart racing. Whatever was in that tank was growing more powerful and dangerous with each encounter, the Eric knew with utmost certainty. This time Eric could make some sense out of the images. He had seen an autopsy table covered in fresh blood, bubbles, and a hand reaching out to him. Eric shook his head.

' _I know what that passage looks like, I'll just have to close my eyes when I see it again.'_ Eric thought to himself.

Eric wandered into the next room and passed through a hallway into the next room. The room looped around, and he noticed that the next room had an occupant. Just like before, Spooky was sitting in a chair with two doors on either, smiling at him. The way she was sitting was causing her dress to… No! Eric tore his eyes away from her body and back onto her face. The pain meds must be kicking in…

"Once again you'll need a key!" Spooky smiled to Eric, tapping the door that was locked. Her smile was anything but comforting. "This time, you might not make it out. Good luck!"

Eric groaned lightly as Spooky just phased though the chair and then the floor beneath. Eric took the door on the left. The layout had once again changed, the floor was a smooth purple stone, and the walls were chiseled stone that was deep violet and carved into tiles. The place was barely lit with torches, and Eric could not see the roof. He moved past the stone and opened the door on the far right. There was nothing but an empty room waiting for him, so he turned back around and went through the door on the left. The hallway split in two directions, and there was a statue of a demon holding a knife to his right. Eric passed into the next room and noticed part of the ceiling had collapsed into the room, and a rusted gauntlet lied in the south-east corner of the room.

' _It's like these mazes are older than the mansion itself… or are a sort of add-on…'_ Eric realized to himself, as he exited the room.

He immediately did not like the next room. It had a dank, damp atmosphere to it. The floor was covered in square tiles, alternating white and black, and a pile of wax blobs lied in the east side of the room. Eric went to the hallway, but immediately turned away. The hallway was not lit, and he could hear something stalking its corridors. This time, Eric had a gut feeling this next maze monster would be real. He entered another hallway, and found a door. Eric ducked the moment he got a glimpse of metal. Several red hot, pencil-thin iron needles blasted out of a contraption not a moment later, slamming into the wall behind Eric.

"H-h-holy shit…" Eric stammered in shock as he examined the trapdoor. "Oh shit…"

He left the door open, and continued examined the door for any particular signs he could use to recognize other trapdoors. Unfortunately, there were none. He would have to be extra cautious when opening doors. Eric entered the next room. The first thing he noticed was the moldy odor filling the room, and then glowing writing on the wall. Someone had scrawled " **She is awake, and you will worship her** " on the south wall. The floor was covered in perfect hexagonal tiles, and a fountain of water sat against the west wall. Eric quickly left the room via the only door, and was presented with a dilemma. He entered a room with four doors on the north wall. How many were traps? What traps did they contain? Could he avoid them all? Questions screamed in Eric's head. He took a chance and tried the door on the fir right. Jumping behind the door as he opened it up. Fire blasted out of the doorway, covering a large radius. Eric was glad he hadn't banked on ducking, or he would have definitely burned to a crisp. Next, he tried the door on the far left. Doing the same. Several flaming arrows shot out of the door, and embedded into the stone wall at the other side of the room. Wait a minute… Aha! Eric found out the trick to the trapdoors! The wood on the trapdoors was different than the wood on the normal ones! The real door was slightly brighter in color, and to test his theory, Eric opened the door right next to him as wide as he could. The door next to it lead to the next room, and not a trap.

"The traps are getting deadlier, and it's best I not open any trapdoors…" Eric muttered to himself as he entered the next room.

tapestry of vile acts hung from the north wall, but this one paled in comparison to it. Eric shuddered as the memory resurfaced. Someone had scrawled " **straight, door, straight, right** " on the east wall, and someone had scrawled " **NO** " in blood under it. Eric decided not to follow the instructions, and took an immediate left instead. A slow, creeping feeling of dread began to seep into Eric's heart. Something was definitely wrong. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Eric pressed up against the wall, it sounded as if something big was stalking the hallways close by. Eric examined the door next to him and opened it up, quietly slipping into the next room. Several square holes had been cut into the ceiling and floor, and a dulled dagger lies in the south-east corner of the room. Someone had scrawled " **She is the heart that beats in the darkness, and now she will rise** " on the east wall, and the north and west walls are covered with mold.

In the next room, someone had scrawled " **SHE IS RISEN** " on the north wall, and next to it drawn in blood, was a satanic symbol of Baphomet's head within the Black Sun. The west and east walls have been engraved with endless spirals, and A set of demonic war masks hangs on the south wall. Skeletons hang from chains and manacles from the ceiling. Eric quickly scurried out of the disturbing room. Once again, he ended up in a hallway. His footsteps echoed off the walls, and he neared a branch in the hallway. The moment he looked inside to see if anything was in, deep, demonic chanting reached his ears. The next sound was the scrape of metal against a sheath. He ran straight for the door in front of him, and out of the shadows, came a monster. The monster wore a white goat skull with six black horns, and sharp teeth. Blood-red eyes peered out from the hollows of the skull. The figure wore a black ceremonial robe, holding a book in the left clawed hand and a wickedly sharp looking dagger in the right.

" **Nog nilgh'rior y-nilgh'ri nilgh'ri ilyaa naflmnahn' fhtagn Dagon R'lyeh nilgh'ri nnnnglui."** A disturbing voice emanated from the beneath the mask.

"Oh fuck that." Eric retorted and exited the room immediately.

" **I am the tainted black goat with a thousand vile young."** The cultist chanted behind Eric.

"Oh yeah?" Eric shouted back as he ran. "My name is get the fuck away from me!"

He looked pack and was promptly horrified. The cultist had shed their clothing, revealing they were female. They were gaunt to the point of emaciation, with desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With bones pushing out against skin, and complexion the ash gray of death. Scars in the formation of ancient eldritch symbols adorned her grotesque body. Their legs were covered in coarse black fur, and ending in cloven hooves. Eric gulped and quickly slammed the door behind him and kept sprinting, the pain in his ankle beginning to flare up again. The door burst off its hinges, and Eric looked back once more. This time, the cultist had revealed the monster they truly were. It resembled an octopus bent in the form of a black goat. Countless red tentacles had been warped into the shape of a writhing goat face, instead of flesh, it appeared to be made of blood woven into a solid form. Six teats covered in pustules dangled from its underside, and it had legs with an unusually perverse number of joints.

" **Some may call me Abbadon. Some may call me Y'golonac the Defiler.** **Some may call me Abhoth.** **Some may call me Satan."** The monster kept on chanting. **"All are one in me. I am the black heart that squirms in the darkness…"**

It did not have one voice, but many, chorusing through the room. The most powerful voice was unnervingly calm, but several other voices stood out, including one who wailed as though it were beginning to climax, another that follows a half second slower and an octave deeper than the others, and yet a third behind that which hissed as a whisper, just barely audible in the cacophony. His lungs were on fire, and his heart was about to beat out of his chest. It was a strange sensation, he discovered, being so excruciatingly pained, but unable to stop moving. Eric's bones felt as if they were made of lead, but some unknown energy forced them to continue to work with his strained muscles and have him continue sprinting through the shadows.

Eric hissed in pain as he stumbled, he had to think of a way to lose the monster behind him, and fast. His ankle would soon be unable to support him.

* * *

 **I honestly like making these key mazes, it allows me to slow the chapter down for a small amount, and build up some tension. Will there be one for every monster? No, that would make it repetitive. These two were mere… tutorials… that Eric will learn and adapt with. Now he cannot assume that every door in the maze is safe. With each iteration, the mazes will become more and more deadly, and with more and more monsters appearing. This will also be an effective way to include some fan-made monsters some of you readers gave me. Don't be a stranger, and leave a review. Agent Archangel, signing out.**


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

* * *

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter Three:

Descent into Hell

Eric hissed in pain as he stumbled, he had to think of a way to lose the monster behind him, and fast. His ankle would soon be unable to support him. Eric frantically scanned the room, time was running out fast. There were two exit doors in the room. Good. He could confuse the hellish fiend. Just how would he… There! Eric immediately spotted a small corridor-like area where he might be able to lead the monster around the bend and make a break for one of the exits. The chanting began to increase in volume, signaling to Eric that he only had thirty seconds at most before the nightmare creature burst into the room. Each step Eric took sent a sharp stab of pain through his foot, and running only made things worse. The only thing that was keeping Eric running was the rapidly fading adrenaline rush in his system. He had to out run the monster, or else… Eric didn't want to think what would happen to him if he was caught…

The door slammed off its hinges, and the monster made a terrifying noise that could only be described as Satan gargling hydrochloric acid mixed with the tormented moans of the damned. Eric sprinted just a little faster now. Pushing his arms back and forth, he jetted to his destination. He could hear the beast right behind him, closing in fast, its putrid breath wafting over the back of his neck. He careened around the corner, and the monster took the bait. He circled around once more, the monster's tails visible. It paused, and Eric tried his absolute hardest to remain silent. Sweat poured from his brow and nose, his cheeks redder than a ripe tomato. His chest burned, and his foot felt as if he had set it on fire. The noises the monster was making made him want to curl up and accept his fate. It was as if the monster was twisting and mangling sound into a perverse violation of language. He could swear that he heard noises that sounded like screams beneath the language. Like it was the very universe screaming through the tortured voices of the many people this monster had most likely sacrificed.

Eric silently crept forwards as the monster stomped off, following it, and hoping that it didn't have the sense to turn around. Luckily, it didn't, and Eric watched as it began to look around the center of the room. The monster paced the center, its unrelenting, hellish chant striking Eric's eardrums. Then, as if it had become a black hole, the beast collapsed upon in itself, turning back into the malnourished woman. What she said next, caused the very blood in Eric's veins to turn to ice.

"Your old life is gone, but I can show you a new world, Eric McCormick." The woman called out, and Eric froze solid, daring not to make a sound. "A world without anger, without fear, without suffering… where everyone can live in harmony… where the outcasts can finally be accepted…" Eric kept silent as the woman paced around the room, she knew where he was hiding. Eric knew that too. "I can make you a part of something better Eric… something truly special… Come to me, I only wish to save you…"

Obviously, Eric had no intention of taking the monster woman's offer, but he crept closer to the edge of the wall, barely peeking out to scan the room. The woman was waiting for him, dead in the middle of the room, staring straight at the corridor Eric was peeking out from. He didn't think she noticed him, or she would most likely not be standing in the middle of the room. Or maybe she did, and wanted to show him just how hopeless his situation was…

"What do you think you will gain? Freedom? Safety? Do you even believe that you can make it through a thousand rooms?" The woman questioned him, her tone growing more irritated by the moment. "This mansion will never let you leave, you will never be free… All you will find at the end of those rooms is suffering. Endless, profane amounts of torment as your soul writhes in agony… But you can avoid all that… come to me Eric, I can help you." Eric remained still and silent, waiting for his opportunity to bolt to the closest exit. "Fine. Have it your way. But I promise you Eric, your torment has only just begun. Living hell is coming. Your heart will shatter, your bones will break… and your soul will be forever consumed with misery."

The woman stormed out of the door on the right, but Eric waited a moment. He was terrified. She had called him out… She had said HIS name. But how? Eric let out a shaky breath. No. He shook his head clear. He had to keep going, no matter the odds, no matter the obstacle, he would persevere. Eric shuffled out of his hiding place, alert and waiting for the monster woman to barge back in at any moment. He slipped out the door on the left, closing it behind him. Eric now found himself in a stranger room than before… Someone had scrawled "Praise Shaura" on the east wall, and the sound of footsteps can be faintly heard near the east wall. In the middle of the room, it appeared as if there was a table with cards on it. The only problem, however, the cards were moving without players. A cube of solid stone sat in the east side of the room, and Eric only saw one door leading out. He quietly limped towards it, trying not to disturb the ghostly card players.

The door opened silently, much to Eric's relief, and he shut it as quietly as possible. He entered a small corridor, and a horrendous smell punched him in the face, making Eric gag and retch. It was a rank and pungent smell, mixed with a tinge of sickening sweetness. Like rotten meat had been wrapped in a cloth dipped in cheap perfume, and then placed next to a garbage can left to ferment in high heat for an extended period of time. Eric turned the other way, but only found a dead end. He had no choice but to go towards the smell. His eyes watered and stung, and his foot throbbing with pain. Down the corridor he went, gagging and struggling for breath due to the overbearing stench. Upon nearing the door, Eric immediately figured out the cause of the smell. A dead body had been pinned to the wall. The woman looked as if she had been there for quite a while, long enough for most of her hair to fall out and her skin to turn mottled, decaying shades of purple, green, and black in some patches.

Looking right, Eric determined the cause of her death. The woman had triggered a trap door. He quickly shambled onwards, not wanting to stay near the dreadful aroma. Eric quickly rounded the corner. Each step hurt. Eric was sure he had broken something… Checking the next door, Eric determined that it was a normal door, and walked into the next room. The floor was covered in perfect hexagonal tiles, a stone dais and throne sits in the south-west corner of the room, and someone had scrawled "HELL AWAITS' on the east wall of the room in blood. Deciding that something was off about the room, Eric quickly hurried out and into the next. Several iron cages were scattered throughout the next room, with skeletons in various tortured positions trapped within them, and someone had scrawled "There is no way out" on the north wall. Eric's suspicions were confirmed. The freaky, malnourished woman was only a small part of this maze. More terrors were soon to come…

Exiting the room, Eric found himself once again in a panic. Long meat hooks dangling on chains from the ceiling hung above Eric, and bloodstains covered the room. Eric swallowed hard as he nervously navigated the slaughter room. There were only four lit torches in the room, one for each wall. Dark inky blobs of shadow covered the corners of the room, dark enough to hide a monster without Eric even knowing. He skirted away from the wall, making his way to the center. His heart jackhammered in his chest. Skritch! Eric jumped. Skritch! He began to hobble to the only door. Skritch! Closer, the sound was getting closer… Skritch! Eric stopped, there was something else… Squeaking? Skritch! He had heard right. There was also a faint squeaking in the room. Eric tensed up.

A mouse popped out of the shadows, and Eric let out a big sigh of relief. The mouse was dragging a small stick in its mouth, and Eric guessed that it was the source of the noise. The mouse dropped the stick and bound into a small hole. Eric grabbed ahold of the doorknob. Skritch! Eric bolted out of the room, slamming the door shut. It wasn't the mouse making the scratching noises… Eric once again found himself in a corridor, and grumbled. He wished to everything that he could just find the key and get out of this hell hole of a maze. He gasped in pain as his injured foot kicked a rock, the small stone clattering off into the distance.

"Hello?" A girl called out, she seemed terrified. "Wh-who's there!? You shitheads better not be dicking around with me!"

Eric paused. Was this a trick? Was there another monster down here that could mimic speech? Eric silently crept through the hallway, the girl's voice growing in volume as he approached. Peeking around the corner, he felt relieved. There was an actual person in the corridor.

"I'm here… I'm a friend…" Eric replied back to the girl, earning a small yelp of fright as she turned to face him. "Sorry, I-I didn't know if you were real…"

"Jesus… fuck…" The girl let out a reassured sigh, and Eric came out from behind the corner. "I'm glad I'm not the only one, uh, so… you got a name?"

"Eric." Eric introduced himself, limping closer to the girl.

Her bright blue eyes that had been filled with fear were relieved, and her light brown hair swayed. Her hair was a little over medium length and her bangs were slightly brushed back. She wore a sea blue summer dress and sneakers. Suddenly, a dark thought insidiously slid into his mind… Eric had never seen the girl in the small town before. So where had she come from?

"Claire… Claire Summers." The Girl introduced herself, not keying in to Eric's concern.

"How did you get here?" Eric asked boldly, waiting for the girl to suddenly turn into a monster.

"Some jackass knocked me out, all I could see were his black gloves, and then a white cloth." Claire shrugged, grumbling in response. "Must've been a strong dude, I put up as much resistance as I could, and I barely even fazed him. Woke up in front of the mansion. What about you?"

"I live in the town below, got curious, and ventured up. Worst choice of my life so far." Eric cracked a smile, maybe Claire could be trusted.

"I'll say." Claire snorted with a small grin. Eric limped forwards a bit, and Clair became concerned. "You're hurt... what happened?"

"Slime ghost. My foot got caught in the puddle." Eric explained as they rounded the corridor.

"Oh, that fucker." Claire groaned in understanding, rubbing her temples. "Nearly got me too…"

Claire went to open the next door they had arrived at, and Eric suddenly stopped her.

"Don't!" Eric warned before explaining. "This is a trap door… designed to kill you."

"Shit…" Claire gulped, it appeared to her that she may have been extremely lucky with her door choices. "Damn… well, then I guess you lead the way?"

"Sure." Eric nodded, wincing as he put weight on his foot.

The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, and so the two tried to lighten the mood. Claire started the conversation, breaking the tense silence.

"I can't fucking believe it." Claire said in an awed tone. "I mean, ghosts, demons, monsters… they're all real."

Eric hadn't even had the chance to contemplate their existence. To tell the truth, it was eye opening. The stuff he read about in stories and online actually had some substance behind them… If ghosts were real, then what else was hiding in the world?

"I know…" Eric nodded in response. "It's a lot to take in really…"

"So, what are you going to do when you get out of here?" Claire asked Eric, she didn't seem as scared as he was.

"I'm going to take a nice shower, and then I'm staying inside for the rest of my life." Eric figured, having not really though about that yet. "You?"

"Same, a nice shower, and then a good, hard fucking." Claire smirked, eyeing Eric over in a not-so-subtle hint.

"Neat." Eric replied, noticing the gesture, but not knowing how to respond to it.

The next door the two arrived at was safe for them to enter. They entered the next room.

A large demonic idol with ruby eyes sat in the west side of the room, it's malevolent gaze lingering upon the two of them. Spirals of black stones covered the floor, and the walls were covered with deep, long claw marks.

"Tell me that thing isn't watching us…" Claire shivered.

"It's just the lighting." Eric reassured, but wasn't too convinced himself. One could never be too sure…

The two skirted around the statue, and they entered a new room. The floor was covered in a small amount of water, a circle of tall stones stood in the south-east corner of the room, and someone had scrawled "Don't lose your head" on the south wall. Instantly, the two checked the ceiling. Nothing. Not one single trap. Didn't hurt to be extra cautious though. The room was small, and led out to a long, massive corridor. The hallway twisted and curved, coiling around in various directions. Soon, the torches became fewer and further in between. Twisted shadows danced fervently upon the stone masonry walls, and the two paused. They had arrived at a door. It had been intricately carved to resemble the mouth of some hellish fiend, and Eric let out a shuddering gasp, his breath misting. He hadn't noticed just how cold the labyrinth had become…

"Oh hell no." Claire immediately voiced her opinion.

"Come on. We need to keep going." Eric objected, walking forwards.

Eric didn't want to proceed. But he had no choice. The doors opened on their own, which did not bode well for them. They entered the next section of the labyrinth. With a dooming slam, the doors closed behind the two.

"Too late to back out now…" Claire sighed in a depressed manner.

The room they were currently in was empty. Yet the very air had a dark, decaying, and oppressive aura to it. The floor was entirely made up of rusted and bloodstained metal grating, the walls resembling rusted chain link fencing. There were a few torches in the room, bathing it in a sinister red tone. There was only one exit in the room, which was a rusted looking metal door. Eric limped to the door, keeping his eyes on the shadows. As he neared the door, Eric shuddered. What he had thought was rust, was actually drying blood. He fought the urge to gag as his hand slightly stuck to the door handle as he opened it, wiping the blood on his pants.

"Eww…" He commented, and Claire looked a little weak.

The next room was worse. Eric didn't dare touch the left wall as he entered a small hallway. It seemed to be made entirely of decomposing, pulsing flesh covered in pustules and wounds dripping pus.

"God fucking damn!" Claire audibly retched. "That's rank!"

The smell was god awful, bearing a faint resemblance to rotten eggs mixed with horrendous diarrhea. The wall throbbed and shuddered, Eric nearly pressing up against the normal looking right wall. They passed by a giant, bloodshot eye, the bulbous thing following their every movement. Once again, he reached a metal door, with a dark sludge of viscera dripping down the front of it. The door opened with a torturous scraping noise, jarring the terrified teens.

The next room they had stumbled into was somehow even worse than the hallway. The ceiling extended up far into the darkness, with a large, stone brazier, emitting a dim red glow hung by chains from the ceiling, and there was an altar in the middle of the room. The unnatural, choking mist that swirled and sprawled on the floor was the first spoke of a vile sort of perverseness. The sickly white substance seemed to possess liquid properties which only reminded of the maggot-like texture of the eyes of a dead man who had been forgotten in his apartment for a few months, ready to burst at the slightest touch. The mist made no sound, however, and only parted to swallow up Eric's feet as they marched upon the giant dead, festering eyeball of the foggy floor. Upon approaching the altar, Eric felt a malevolent presence surrounding him, the very air whispering in his ears.

"I'm in hell…" Eric yammered to himself deliriously, his hopes rapidly fading away. "I died on that mountain, and went to hell…"

Claire giggled to herself, their psyches were breaking. The altar itself was a single block of stone carved with disturbing images of grisly torture. Various depictions of men, woman, and children, and even infants in sickeningly tormented poses had been carved into the stone, their lifelike faces depicting untold amounts of suffering and agony… Eric could almost hear their piercing screams… A profane ritual book sat atop the altar, but neither of the two dared to touch it. The only exit was a door made entirely of bone, tortuously set within the gaping mouth of a gargantuan skull carved from stone. Eric quickly left the satanic room behind… The small room he was now in branched off in two directions, and Eric ventured through the hallway on the right. He immediately regretted his choice, stumbling upon a room with a corpse in it…

"Oh fuck!" Claire cursed in horror, averting her eyes immediately.

There was blood everywhere. The man had been suspended in a cocoon of bandages and rope, hanging over the floor. His throat gaped open, and his midsection had been opened neatly. He had been eviscerated, his organs placed in an orderly fashion on the floor beneath. Barbed ware penetrated the man's body at various points, still dripping with blood… A nasty feeling welled up within Eric, and he vomited all over the ground, heaving and retching, bile stinging his throat followed by another string of curses from Claire.

Eric tried his hardest to burn the sight from his mind as he turned around, walking to the other side. There was a branching corridor, but the two could not, would not, walk into it. A woman's head filled the dead end of the corridor. Her skin was scarred and diseased-looking, and her eyes were bloodshot. Her eyes twitched erratically and followed Eric and Claire around the room. The worst part about the flesh monstrosity before them, was her breathing. Her heavy breathing sounded as if she was using a breathing tube, like the ones used in hospitals. Yet it somehow also sounded sexual and orgasmic, as if she was having sex or was masturbating. Eric shuddered, keeping his eyes off of the massive face.

"The hell is this place…" Claire grimaced, cringing away from the horror.

They quickly entered the next room, leaving the horror behind. A few inches of water covered the floor, but the worst part about the room was it's torturous design. The curving walls rose for dozens of meters overhead, sank for dozens of meters below, a rippling darkness studded with the spiky forms of control rods. The whole place felt like being on the inside of the universe's biggest Iron Maiden… There was another altar in the room, this time, it was made out of a single block of stone carved with disturbing images depicting various illegal and taboo sexual acts. Eric and Clair quickly began to leave, passing the altar.

Suddenly, red light washed over them, and their shadows grew tall in front of them. They turned, expecting to see their latest adversary. Eric took an involuntary step backward, shocked at the sight that greeted him. The room was a fury of fire, a wall-to-wall holocaust, fire flowing over the control spikes, over the surfaces, pouring through the air. The altar glowed cherry red... orange… its color shifting through blazing white, a small, corrupt sun in the heart of chaos. Behind it, was a humanoid figure consumed by fire. Skin had been charred and blackened, seared by the intense heat, and his face frozen in a state of constant pain. They emerged impossibly from the water, the hellish sounds of inferno filled the air, and the two felt a wave of heat pass over him. The burning man walked toward them, the water bubbling and steaming where his feet came down, hissing like writhing snakes. The two took off in panic. Eric rounded a corner, left, right, left… he had to get away from the man. He needed to. Eric only slowed down when he realized that Claire was not with him, stopping near a tank full of green water.

"Claire?" Eric yelled to the darkness. "Claire?!"

No response, and a dreadful feeling settled in Eric's gut. Did he just leave Claire to die on her own? Suddenly, a man's face pressed up against the glass of the tank, grinning at him. He screamed, backing away. The man's face had not finished forming yet, the skin incomplete, the white of bone showing through, muscle tissue flexing as he worked his jaw. The tank exploded in a torrent of glass shards and thick blood. The man, still grinning, still forming, came for Eric. He found a ladder, and slid down into the hole, bumping straight into Claire.

"Run!" He screamed to her.

The man oozed into the vertical access, staring down at Clair, coming headfirst down the ladder like a gigantic spider. He hissed as he moved. She saw raw muscle, distorted tissue. Claire ran. The Hellhound had arrived.

* * *

 **Honestly, I really don't have much to say about this chapter. As I said before, I am taking the story back to a more horror oriented theme, and what's better to kick off that with scenes inspired by Silent Hill. Can anyone find the reference? Other than that, I expanded upon Eric's personality a bit. He is afraid. Deep down, there is a slight bit of paranoia I'm trying to give him, something to give him flaws. I am sorry for not posting this, but work has been very busy lately, and I had big plans on Sunday. With that done, I bid you farewell. Until next time, Agent Archangel, signing out.**


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

* * *

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter Four:

The Demon

For some time now, Spooky sat in a room. It was her little control room. Here, she was able to monitor all of her specimens, and victims. Here she could set her creations free… Something she took immense pleasure in. But she was no longer smiling. She had been scowling for the last hour, and now, her frown darkened.

"Something's wrong…" Spooky announced to nobody. "I can't find him."

"I can feel it too." The darkness behind Spooky spoke. "Perhaps there was something about that maze I overlooked?"

Spooky and the figure in the darkness watched the replay of the eldritch monster trying to coerce Eric into coming to her freely. Spooky could feel the figure's discontent.

"Maybe the monster knew something was happening before we did…?" Spooky hypothesized, but the figure kept silent.

She could only wonder about Eric. Spooky showed the figure the most current feed she had on Eric. It showed Eric limping down the hallway right before he stumbled onto Claire. The figure in the darkness watched as Eric began to talk to someone.

"Where's the audio?" The darkness behind Spooky inquired.

"It cut out… Must be some interference…" Spooky shook her head, fiddling with the controls.

The two watched Eric limp forwards through the tunnel, as if he had found someone. Static began to corrupt the feed, and the more and more Eric walked, the worse the video quality became. Something was terribly wrong. Even the figure could tell. Only time would tell if Eric had survived or not...

Meanwhile, in the worst part of the maze, Eric and Claire were sprinting away from the spider-like man. The two sprinted as fast as they could away from the monster of a man, anywhere to get away from that thing… Eric stumbled. He hissed out in pain, his ankle throbbing. His ankle had finally said enough was enough.

"It's no use!" Eric shouted to Claire. "I can't put any more weight on it!"

"I'm not leaving you here!" Claire growled out as she helped Eric up.

"And I'm telling you that I'm dead weight!" Eric pushed Claire away, falling back to the stone ground.

Claire bent down and slapped Eric across the face as hard as she could, seething and fuming. Brick by brick, her walls came tumbling down. She just broke down. The sobs punched through, ripping through her muscles, bones, and guts.

"I've been alone…" Claire grimaced, roughly grabbing Eric. "No friends, barely any family… And the first person I feel like I can connect to… You and I are… You and I…"

Eric pulled Claire close. He didn't mean to hurt her at all. He wanted to do just the opposite. Then a dark thought slithered into his mind. What if…? No. Eric pushed the thought back vehemently. There was no time for that now.

"I'm sorry." Eric apologized profusely.

Claire helped Eric up, and he slung his arm over her shoulder. Together, they slowly made their way into the next room. Expecting more ghoulish nightmares, the two were pleasantly surprised. There was nothing wrong with the room. Just metal grating for the floor, and rusty iron chain-link fences for the walls.

"That's a relief…" Claire sighed in respite.

"No kidding…" Eric joked back, smiling lightly.

The two shared a laugh, it was a small laugh, just barely lifting their spirits. But that was all the two needed. Eric finally felt closer to Claire. The two were able to bond quickly, and Claire decided to shed some light on herself, and her past.

"Never knew my mom. Just my dad." Claire told him, she seemed angry. "I had a lot of siblings… but one of them…"

"Didn't get along well?" Eric offered, but Claire shook her head.

"Oh no, we got along excellently. He was just a very terrible influence." Claire admitted with a snort. "Dad kicked him out, and I followed my brother."

"Let me guess. Worst mistake of your life?" Eric summarized, and Claire snorted again.

"That would be a close second to coming to this mansion." Claire smirked. "But yes. Turns out, my brother was a monster in disguise. He tormented those who went with him, and here I am, free, but in hell…"

"Well, we only have to get out of this mansion." Eric offered, trying to give Claire some hope. "How about when we get out, you come live with me."

Claire stayed silent, but Eric could understand. He could feel her appreciation. The next room left the two feeling weird. A tapestry of geometric patterns hung from the north wall, domeone had scrawled " door, straight, left, straight, straight" on the east wall. Underneath it, however, someone had written "This is a lie. I'm now walking funny."

"Ew…" Eric's face scrunched up. "What is with this place and weird, freaky sex?"

"Don't know." Claire shook her head. "Don't wanna know."

"Point taken." Eric mumbled and the two hobbled off through the door. "Oh for Christ's sake!"

They were back to the hellish landscape again with the next room. There was a bloody, horrific torture device in the middle of the room, and a rotting carcass next to it. The body was deformed and bent in ways Eric didn't think could ever happen. The mouth hanging open in a frozen scream. Eric and Claire decided to ditch the place. They wound up in an even weirder room. The floor was covered in perfect hexagonal tiles, several corroded iron spikes were scattered throughout the room. Someone had scrawled "When the stars fall from the sky and death becomes life, the Fangs of the Azure Wolf shall fall" in blood on the west wall, someone had scrawled "The line of Fortitude shall end when the rivers run red with blood" on the east wall, a sloped pit lined with iron spikes lied in the north-east corner of the room, a pile of rotten fruit lies in the south side of the room, and an iron chain with a large ring on it hung over the pit. The two tried the door, but it was locked.

"You think that ring has anything to do with the door?" Claire asked Eric, who nodded.

"Most likely." Eric told her. "Be careful."

Claire tried her hardest to reach the ring, but she was just a bit too short. She stepped back from the edge, and Eric took a shot at it. Closer… Closer… Eric's fingers barely touched the tip of the ring. He almost had it… there! Eric yanked the ring down and stumbled back, pain flaring up on his foot. He hissed as he slipped and fell to the floor.

"Hopefully this is the only room with a puzzle…" Eric commented to Claire. There was no response. "Claire?"

Eric looked around the room. Claire was nowhere to be found. Eric checked the spikes. Nope… She couldn't have… Did she really just leave him all on his own? Eric staggered up. Something wasn't right. The feeling just kept bubbling back up. Every time he beat the dread down, it crept back up. Eric limped over to a spike, and tugged it free. Although he doubted the integrity of the spike, at least he had a weapon in case of an attack. Eric then cautiously moved onto the next room. This time, he had stumbled into a hallway, and he shuddered.

The place was entirely made out of pink, soft, slippery coils of flesh. Ew… The whole place slowly rippled and squirmed around in ways that made Eric feel as if the place was alive… Eric kept walking, trying to block out the squishing his movements made. Grooves had formed into the fleshy tunnel that Eric was in, and the more he walked through it, the more Eric began to see a disgusting similarity between the hallway and the inside of a vagina.

' _It's like I'm heading towards the womb of hell itself…'_ Eric thought in a grim manner.

Eric recoiled in disgust as he was forced to touch a fleshy door to exit the room, the door leaving a glistening substance on his hands. He frantically brushed it off while trying not to gag. Suddenly Eric stopped. On the floor, in copious amounts of blood, someone had scrawled "She's part of it". Eric shook his head. He sped up. Eric needed to find Claire, and they needed to get out… Voices began to arise from the darkness. Their seething multitude a sign of the maze's influence on him growing stronger by the minute. He slammed through the door, and found himself in a familiar room.

Eric had entered the room with the altar that had water covering the floor. He was back where the burning man had emerged from. He then noticed a familiar figure standing near the Altar. Claire… Eric dropped the spike and limped up to her, but she did not respond. Blood pooled in the water near her… She was injured, and bad…

"C-Claire?" Eric asked, the room then brightened up, giving Eric a better look. "My God…"

He felt so angry, desperately wanting to… to… Deep, vicious thoughts wormed their way into his mind. Yes, he was going to hurt them. He wanted to rend their flesh from their bodies… he wanted to care profane, perverse symbols into their bodies… He wanted to sear their very bones…A vision of him and Clara appeared in his mind. They were engaged in frantic sex; she, wrapped around him as he rammed himself into her. Both of them were covered in blood. She had dug her fingernails into his back, tearing into the flesh, leaving gory tears that streamed blood down his back, though he seemed oblivious to either pain or injury. Eric violently shook his head, and forced the bile rising in his throat back down. What was he thinking? They needed to leave! Now! Eric could hear the multiple voices growing closer and closer. It filled the entire room… The whole maze was beginning to take over their psyches now.

"We need to leave! Now!" Eric shouted over the clamor, gently grabbing Claire's shoulder. "Come on!"

"Leave?" Claire smiled maliciously. "No. We can never leave."

"What?" Eric paused in confusion. "We're getting out of this, we're going home…"

"I already am home…" Claire hissed to him. It seemed as though her voice came from all around him now.

She touched his face, her fingers as hot as fire. Eric let out a strangled cry. Claire's smile had turned downright malevolent, and only then did Eric realize the horrible truth about Claire.

"You! You're…" Eric recoiled, gasping and panting. His instincts had been right all along. Claire had been a part of the maze. "You're not real…"

Eric closed his eyes, trying to block out the illusion as hard as he could. He gasped as a warm, wet hand sharply grabbed his cheeks, gripping hard and tight. Eric yelled in pain as sharp nails dug into his skin.

"Wrong, boy." Claire's voice slithered out to him. It sounded wrong… all wrong…

Eric gasped. No longer was there the form of a scared, teen girl in front of him, but a demon, one who had writhed its way up from the very pits of hell… The body was larger, misshapen… corrupted… Large lacerations had been sliced all over Claire's body, deep, bleeding, and excruciating to look at. Satanic runes had also been etched into her forehead, cheeks, breasts, and over her vagina. Eric forced his gaze away, and noticed that blood was dripping from between Claire's legs. With a gag, Eric looked back up to Claire's face. The face was Claire's, but her skin appeared to have the texture of wood. She was a monster… Fear washed over Eric as he saw the true terror of the demon.

The creature had no hair, showing only shiny skin covered in agonizing lacerations where hair should have been. A pair of triangular, elven ears protruded from the sides of the creature's skull, sticking out a full two inches from the sides of its head. A pair of six-inch long pointed horns broke through the skin on its forehead, and two other pairs of horns, roughly a foot long, sprout from the sides of the creature's head. They swept back and gave it a fearsome look. The creature had eyes… bearing a vertical slit instead of rounded pupils, surrounded by a brightly glowing iris. They glittered green, too large, too deep. There was a reptilian coldness there, a look that spoke of millions of years. The creature had some of Claire's form, but it reeked of an alien nature that left Eric with a sense of horror that transcended anything he had ever felt.

Without thinking, Eric swung, a right hook that the creature caught easily. Eric screamed as his fist was slowly crushed. Long nails cut into his flesh, and blood ran. The creature hurled him away, into the wall. Something cracked in Eric's side, and he slid down, hitting the floor hard. Stunned and barely able to breathe. A dark shape loomed over him. The creature was folding its body into a kneeling shape by him. It bent until its face was centimeters from Eric's. He could smell the stink of its breath over everything else.

"I will give you endless days of pain," the creature said, straddling Eric's hips in a perverse movement, "immeasurable agony. The more profound your despair, the greater will be my pleasure. And, in the end, after all of it ... you will thank me."

Eric thrust out with his left hand, hoping to catch the demoness off guard. She caught his hand with ease, snapping his arm. Eric yowled in pain as the creature picked stood up, picking him up as well. The creature threw him against another wall, narrowly missing a spike. Eric coughed as he landed on his back, paralyzed, his breath coming in with short gasps. Eric raised his head.

"What do you want from me?" Eric asked, he was weary. He wished this would be over.

The demon walked slowly toward him.

"Respect." the demon said, crouching to face him. "The reverence I deserve. Or did you think you could profane this place without it coming to my attention? Did you think you could come pounding on my door and I would not answer?"

The demon tore open Eric's pants, licking her lacerated lips in a depraved gesture. Forever bleeding hands left stains on Eric's boxers, before they too were pulled aside.

"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" Eric hissed, trying his hardest to ignore the monster's ministrations.

The Demon grinned. Too late. She had what she wanted, placing her body over his.

"Kill you? I don't want you dead. Just the opposite. I want you to live forever." The demon reached out to him, grasping his head. Eric struggled, twisting. He could not break the creature's grasp. "Let me show you."

The Demon snapped her hips down as her claws dug into Eric's forehead. Eric screamed. Images cascaded through his mind, horrific, endless. In moments he saw the bloody fates of his family, saw them torn apart, degraded, destroyed from within and without. He was drowning in blood and suffering, too much of it for him to accept, too much to withstand…

"Do you see?" the Demon asked, its parody of Claire's voice almost a caress.

Eric writhed, trying to break the contact, trying to make the horror stop. His hand struck something under the surface of the waters, cutting his hand. The pain jarred him free of the cascade of images for a moment, long enough. He reached down, grasping, found a familiar object. One of the spikes! The visions surged back, swirling through his mind.

"Do you see?" The Demon whispered.

He saw. His mom, dad, and sister had been crucified upside-down over the altar, blood dripping from their bodies. Their faces frozen in an endless scream of pain and suffering.

"No!" Eric cried, thrashing under the Demon. "They're not dead! You didn't get them!"

"Not yet." The Demon said. "But soon. Very soon."

"No!" Eric screamed.

He thrashed around again, and this time his head came away from the creature's hands. He sank beneath the waters for a moment, then surged up, bringing the spike up and around, slamming it into the creature's head. The Demon staggered back, shaking its head, blinking.

Eric came to his feet. "Leave them alone!"

He swung the spike again, with all the force he could muster, snapping the Demon's head around, making it stagger. He saw blood pouring from an open wound, filling the runes.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Eric yelled at the creature, letting the fury take him over.

He swung the spike back and forth, scything, each blow sending the Demon staggering back. With a thrust, Eric speared the demon's heart. He beat her… She laughed. Victory turned to horror as the Demon reached up, snatching the spike, ripping it from Eric's hands, and hurling it away. In a blur, it had Eric, too, lifting him, flinging him into the water. Eric slammed into the altar, water washing over him. Pain flooded his body from head to foot. He knew things were broken, ribs, organs… there had to be internal bleeding. He could not move. The Demon stood over him. An improbably long tongue peeled out of its mouth, licking at the bloody runes on its face. It smacked its lips, pleased.

"Yes," it hissed. "I had forgotten how good that can taste."

Eric lay in the water, groaning.

The Demon squatted over him. "You should be flattered I've taken an interest in you. There were others ... they were easy. But you will fight."

Beyond the creature, the Altar was a deepening darkness, swelling outward. Darkness seemed to be filling the universe. Hell was coming… Dark fire flashed through the runes on the creature's face, traveled down the length of its body, revealing more runes, intricately woven together.

"You will struggle against me with every ounce of strength you possess ... right up to the moment when you surrender to me willingly." The Demon snarled viciously.

"Don't count on it." Eric hissed through clenched teeth.

His fingers touched something small, hard in the water. Hoping blindly, Eric closed his hand. He felt the handle of a dagger, and prayed.

"I don't ask you to embrace me with blind faith," the Demon said, softly, "I will win you."

Will you now? Eric rolled over, getting to all fours, trying to get to his feet. It's time, he thought, time to go. The creature kicked out. Eric slid again, pushing a bow wave of coolant ahead of himself. Pale fire ripped through him. At this rate he would not last much longer. He tried to rise again, and could not complete his movement. He fell back into the muck. In the distance, the Altar swelled, its humming reaching a crescendo. Energy pulsed forth, along the control spikes, rippling along the surfaces of the walls. Hell was approaching… The Demon came down to him.

Through a red haze of pain, Eric grimaced in pain, "You want me to pay for... mistakes?"

"I want to reward you for them." The Demon said, smiling.

It was a mass of brilliant runes now, growing stronger as the Altar continued its progress. It crept closer to Eric. Reality had melted around the Altar, the walls shifting, changing, vanishing, becoming part of the Core's intolerable blackness. The universe was being swallowed by the heart of the Altar. Hell had arrived. The Altar grew, screaming.

"You want me to burn in hell?" Eric asked, preparing the dagger. "You want to take my soul? Sorry, it's not for sale."

A surge of movement. The Demon grasped Eric by the front of his shirt, lifting him from the waters and holding him in the air, still eye to eye. Eric glared into the hellish corruption of Claire's face, unwavering.

"Do you see?" The Demon said. It was framed by the chaos that had been the darkness. "Do you see?"

"Yes," Eric declared, choosing his destiny there and then, regretting nothing, "I see."

He raised his fist, held it between their faces. Without irony, he said, "Go to hell." He pressed the dagger straight through the Demon's heart. With a scream, reality imploded. As if sucked into the hell that it came from, the Demon disintegrated. The distortions in reality eased, slowly returning to normal. Then the world faded away, the hellish landscape became the normal part of the maze. In his hand, the dagger had become a silver key. He had won. Eric, weakened, weary, and dying, collapsed. Darkness overtook his vision, and his breathing came to a halt.

* * *

 **And there you have it. With the introduction of Spooky's shady benefactor, and his involvement with the newer portions of her 1000 rooms, one can only guess what monster awaits in the shadows... plotting and planning... More importantly, with Eric near death, and collapsed in a maze with an eldritch monster on the loose, how will he find his way out of trouble now? Find out in the next chapter of Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart! Don't be a stranger, leave a review! That's all for now. Until next time, Agent Archangel, signing out.**


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

* * *

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter Five:

Mutagenic Malice

Dark, dark… deep in the dark… He was suspended in the void, the dark passing through him, stripping him naked, and peeling out the contents of his mind… pouring the pieces of his soul into a pool that floated in nothingness.

I touch all things.

"Who are you?" Eric mumbled to the void, barely able to stay conscious.

I am.

Another answer that made no sense. The darkness had no end. Points of light pierced the darkness. There was a sound of pain, of anguish. A circle of light, like fire breathed into the air. The darkness was not driven back.

You are not the one I need.

The points of light fell into the circle. It began to resemble a heart.

"What am I, then?" Eric asked, his strength growing.

Dangerous.

Lines of light fell from point to point. They began to turn the heart blue, protecting it. Shielding it with light. Light… The concept seemed almost a curse.

"Because of this?" Eric wondered.

Yes. We cannot suffer the innocent to live. It profits us nothing.

A glowing symbol within a circle. A shield, a hope. Without knowing how he did it, Eric brought it close, trying to reintegrate himself in the warm soul-glow.

"Lady be with me—Pfagh!" Eric chanted, but was abruptly cut off.

The darkness struck him, crushing… overpowering... All that remained of his consciousness fell away from him. Silent and cold, Eric spun away through the darkness. He saw someone. In the darkness… no… it was the darkness. All Eric could see was a pale face… The eyes were gone. Torn away. The eye sockets were somehow blackened, as though by cauterizing. Surging from the darkness and silence, and falling back into the world… Eric's eyes opened, and he was flooded with light. Sharp pain stabbed his side. Gasping with agony, Eric turned to face his attacker. He nearly died of fright.

It looked like a deer warped into the form a woman. For some reason, it was hard for Eric to look directly at it. An odd darkness always seemed to follow it, and it seemed to warp and distort space wherever it was.

"Do not be afraid, child." The monstrosity spoke, it had a female voice.

It had not one voice, but many, chorusing through the room. The most powerful voice was the calm and cultured one, but several other voices stood out, including one who wailed its greeting as though it were beginning to climax, another that followed a half second slower and an octave deeper than the others, and yet a third behind Eric that hisses it as a whisper, just barely audible in the cacophony.

"Please stay still while I heal your wounds." The monster told Eric.

That wasn't precisely what every voice said, some were imperious and demanded Eric to listen, and others were plaintive, or were made to sound plaintive as they stuttered and jittered over trickier syllables.

"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" Eric asked weakly, shivering from the cold.

"Before there was life, before there was death… before time, before space, before the light, before the darkness… There was Nothing." The monster told Eric in a chilling voice. "Before there was Nothing, there was the Cataclysm. before the Cataclysm, there was primal, nuclear chaos. The womb. My sister and I, are of the few remaining of this womb. Our names, have no translation. There was no language."

"Your… sister?" Eric questioned, inspecting his body.

"You met her. Very few can resist her temptations." The monster told Eric.

Eric remembered the cultist, how she had mutated into some perverse monster.

"You haven't told me why you're helping me." Eric said to the monster.

"No. I haven't." The monster agreed with him. "Very little interests me. You are special. I let you live, only because your struggle has captured my interest. Whether you die after this, or live to gain your freedom, it is all the same to me. Now. Drink."

The monster gave Eric a flask. The smoking, swirling, oily-black slimy substance was viciously bubbling and frothing. Eric grimaced as he brought the neck of the flask to his mouth. It smelled like ashes and vomit, but tasted even worse. Eric coughed and spluttered as he forced himself to drink the potion. The slick, slimy substance burned as it chunkily slid down Eric's throat, tasting like blood and black licorice. Eric inhaled sharply. Pain shook him, tumultuous and terrible. He began to scream, releasing the pain. Eric rolled off the stone tablet he had been lying on and, writhed on the ground as his wounds healed. As the las cut healed, the pin faded away. Eric shot up, but the monster had vanished.

"There is much ahead of you, young one. Pain. Suffering. Betrayal… Your struggle will be grand. All of it soon to come. But, if you can manage to stay above, to keep true to who you are, you may have a chance at freedom." The monster's voice echoed around Eric, her voice tinged with amusement. "Do not disappoint me… I await much."

Her voice vanished, and Eric finally felt completely isolated. He took the key with him, and staggered out of the room. Eric quickly turned the corner and went back to the main room, inserting the key and unlocking the door. He entered the next room, and heard the door close behind him with a thud. Just like before, the key vanished. Eric didn't like the odds. Judging by what the monster had told him, letting him live would be much crueler. With a low sigh, he continued on his journey through the mansion. The rooms began to fade into one giant mess… one with the floor covered in square tiles, alternating white and black, another with a warped spear lying in the south side of the room, various torture devices scattered throughout one room, unintelligible whispering that could be heard in the south-west corner of a hallway. Eric wasn't fazed by the maze.

His footsteps echoed throughout the empty halls. Flickering torches illuminated the pathway just enough to see by. Water drips somewhere, creating a hollow pinking noise that was nigh impossible to ignore. He kept walking, not getting anywhere. The walls shifted and creaked, and the looming emptiness of the building was unavoidable. The only encounter Eric had with another person, was only a monster in disguise. The barrenness of the whole thing sat heavily on his back, an unnecessary pressure. He shuddered with the overhanging depression, and pressed forward through the murky hall.

Squelch! Eric looked down. Not good. He had stepped straight into another puddle of slimy, sticky goop. He pulled his foot out just in the nick of time, as a hand suddenly sprang forth from the mess, spraying goop everywhere. Eric immediately took off in a sprint. Being chased was nothing like the movies. Reality was far removed from that pretty version of running to save your skin.

His breath came in small spurts, hot and nervous. At his sides, fingers curled into sweaty fists, swinging forward as if it would make him faster. Behind him, he could hear the gurgling of the specter. His face was flushed red, and his expression was just pure panic. Around the corner and bursting through the door, Eric didn't let up for one moment. He would run until there's no skin left on his feet, then he would crawl... He could almost sense the monster behind him. All its rage, all its maliciousness, and he knew it took twisted delight in his fear. Heart pounding, Eric's panicked breath was like thunder in his ears.

Thighs burning, lungs on fire, and praying not to trip. Adrenaline almost bursting through his skin, eyes wide with fear, screams locked in his throat. Eric could sense it coming. He could hear it. Its groans of infuriation. It was right behind him. Eric could almost feel fingers snatching his blonde hair. His feet pounded the ground with all the grace of a sack of wet concrete, the springing graceful steps from earlier had long since disappeared. His rasping throat was as parched as a dead lizard in the desert sun. His head bobbed loosely from side to side with each footfall, and his eyes felt heavy in their sockets. But Eric kept running. Dodging the damning puddles of goop becoming second nature to him.

The puddles became fewer and further in between. A good sign. Eric only let up when he was sure the ghost had stopped following him. Eric wiped the sweat from his forehead, exhausted. His long legs broke from beneath him and he collapsed to his hands and knees. Sure, he was athletic, but he was no track runner. His stomach growled, and suddenly, Eric realized that he had lost his backpack.

"Great. Just great." Eric spat out in frustration. "I'm going to starve before I make it out."

Eric turned a corner and entered another strange room. He found a hidden chest in the south side of the room. It was locked, and Eric figured that the chest was most likely booby trapped, judging by the dried bloodstain everywhere. There were two lockpicks still in the keyhole. Eric grinned, lockpicking was a natural skill almost. Tinkering with the lock, he prepared to jump back and hit the deck the moment he opened the chest… There! Eric launched himself backwards and slammed onto the ground, not a moment later, a large scythe swung down, barely inches from the tip of his nose. It did not come around a second time, but Eric waited just to make sure. When he was satisfied, Eric opened the chest from the side. Just as he had suspected, the trapper was an asshole, and placed a second trap. Spikes shot out of a mechanism, three in total, aiming for the head and torso.

Inside the chest, Eric found a gold coin. A statue was nearby. Eric walked into the next room, and saw that it branched off into another room, and an open hallway. Eric figured that the hallway most likely led away from the Death statue. A cube of solid stone stood in the center of the room, and a pile of rotting wood lied in the south-west corner of the room. He was right on the money, and found the statue. Cloaked in a black robe, and his hand outstretched to Eric. Walking up to the statue, Eric placed the gold in his hands. Almost immediately, the left arm began to move, a boney hand holding out a piece of paper. It was a simple map, detailing the hallway, the corridors to take, and a part of a maze. A hand firmly grasped his shoulder and Eric yelled as he was once again forced face Death. He stared straight into the face of Death. His face, all faces, and nobody's face. The room had grown so cold now, that it physically hurt. It wasn't a natural chill, no, it was something much more sinister. Eric remembered the chill. It kneaded its way down to his very bones.

Death's robes glimmered with shades of cool colors, as if he was wearing a silken universe. His wings were now black and trailing, as if they were tears into the reality of space, passageways into the void. Eric could not move; his body would not respond. The shadows were moving on their own accord. Some shadows were like dark smoke, and others like a grey mist, thrashing around on the edge of the room as if they were desperately trying to get away from them. Eric stared at Death. Then Death opened his mouth.

 **"WHEN THE DAY COMES THAT THE FACELESS SHOWS THEIR TRUE POWER, THE GREY MAN WHO LOST HIS HUMANITY SHALL RETURN."** Death spoke to Eric in the same voice.

He felt as if his soul were being coerced to Death. The white mist swirled around Eric, obscuring Death. Eric suddenly bolted awake while clutching his heart, panting and gasping for air. He looked around the room, his heart beating like a jackhammer and a drop of sweat trickled from his brow, dripping off his nose and onto the cool, stony ground.

"I hate that…" Eric groaned, staring at the statue.

He left the room, shaken, and cold. Eric entered the next room and stopped in his tracks. Checking the map, Eric left the south door alone, and exited through the east door. He wondered what the prophecies meant. They had to be prophecies.

"Six shall come, six shall go. Two shall leave, four shall stay. All will come to me." Eric repeated the first prophecy. "Everyone dies, so that means all will come to death. Two shall leave… maybe there are more people in here…"

Eric checked the map and took a left. It was no use in trying to decode riddles, they always had too many meanings. Eric took a right, and left through the open doorway. Eric walked down the hallway and noticed there was a branching hall. A chill filled the area and Eric shivered. Goose bumps saluted the freezing air, and the hairs on the back of Eric's neck rose up. He turned around sharply, yet nothing was there.

 _'Must be the house itself...'_ Eric thought to himself as he entered another room.

This time it had a doorway to the left and a long hallway with a flickering light at the end, his instincts warned him that he should avoid the long hallway and curb his curiosity.

 _'Something's just not right about that... it has to be a trap or something.'_ Eric guessed, and quickly exited the room.

There were three doorways, and a white fog hung in the air, obscuring whatever lied beyond the doorways. Eric immediately pulled out the paper, and realized that this fog maze was much deadlier than the previous one. Right, straight, and then left. That was all it took to find the exit, but Eric guessed that whatever traps waited for him at the wrong doors, they had to have been lethal. Eric checked the map, but it had vanished from his hand. He figured that if it had stayed, he would've needed it. The next room Eric entered was another subterranean elevator. On the bed, was Eric's backpack. Grateful for the gift, Eric took out a protein bar, and a bottle of water. He wolfed down the bar, and guzzled the bottle of water. The cute cat poster on the wall had been replaced with a bloody heart saying "keep that blood pumpin!". Eric found a note from the "Romantic" guy on the table, and read it.

" **I found something today to satisfy my unromantic thirst. I awoke today from a brief faint, and found before me a bottle of red wine! I am not sure what brand or year, for there is no label. All I gather is that it tastes strongly metallic."**

Eric sighed, thinking _'Ten bucks that wasn't wine at all…'_

He decided to rest for a bit and laid down on the bed. His whole body hurt, and he was practically passing out from exhaustion. Eric only opted for a light sleep, and got up almost an hour later. He pressed the red button and ever so slowly did the elevator begin its descent deeper within the twisted mansion, until the elevator groaned to a halt and a rusty metal door was in front. Eric opened the door and closed it behind him. Eric noticed the tiling had changed once more, the tiles a deep brown, and now appeared to be wooden instead of stone. Eric turned a corner and halted as suddenly as he could, before rushing over to a figure on the floor.

She had long black hair and wore a red dress, she was lying face down upon the ground with her one hand outstretched. Eric turned her over and paled, her body was as pale as cold milk and her veins were all a visible shade of black, deep lacerations bloodlessly opened up and a few organs fell out, causing Eric to drop the corpse in fright. He ran off, not wanting to meet the monster that caused the woman's death.

After about ten or eleven rooms, Eric suddenly wound up in what looked like a research facility looking area. The tiles were metal and grey, with what appeared to be thick iron walls, and a tall ceiling. Eric's footsteps clanked loudly upon the cold metal floor, and he shivered, it was chilly within the room. He tried the door in front, but it was locked, he tried the one on his left, but it was locked too. The only unlocked door was on the right. Within the sub room, there seemed to be mutated masses of flesh inside some green colored stasis tanks, Eric noticed that one had been shattered from the inside. Walking up to the computerized control panel, he read 'Specimen Breach', and Eric gulped for air nervously. He treaded carefully to the table at the far end, and saw a severed Velociraptor head floating within the liquid filled stasis tank. There was a note and a keycard on the table, Eric pocketed the key card and began to read the note.

 **"Subject 5 is growing more and more restless. I told spook we need more funds for sedatives, but she just laughed and flew into the ceiling. Without more chemicals to keep these subjects in a docile state, I do not know how much longer we can contain the specimens here safely" – Senior Researcher Mark E. F** ███████████

Eric looked up at the ceiling to check for anything, and questions began to whirl about within his head. He looked down at the name 'Spook' and noticed it was an allusion to 'Spooky',

 _'It says she floated through the ceiling, so obviously these scientists knew they were working with a ghost, but why?'_ Eric wondered, and then looked around and back to the broken stasis containment tank.

Eric shuddered as he noticed that the glass was broken from the inside, and green fluids seeped onto the cold metallic ground.

 **'Reminds me of a certain videogame...'** He thought nervously and walked out through the door and tried the one to the left.

 **"Access denied, Level 5 (Thaumiel) security clearance required."** The computer announced, and the light remained red, so Eric tried the other locked door, **"Access Granted,"** The computer declared, and the light turned green.

Eric opened the door and closed it behind him, the lock whirring shut and then shutting down. There was a bloodstain on the floor, and a note beside it. Eric's paranoia began to increase rapidly. He knew something was in the room with him now. He picked up the note and began to quickly read it, in case some mutated monstrosity decided to sneak up on him.

 **"I believe Subject 5 is loose. The glass around its container is shattered, and I can faintly hear clicking coming from the ceiling. I don't know what will happen now. If it out and alive then this is my last report. The clicking is getting louder now." – Junior Research Assistant Spencer Alberts.**

Eric put the note down, noting that it was spattered with small droplets of old blood. Suddenly something gurgled and screeched behind him, the sound of clicking was becoming louder and louder. Turning around, Eric got a good look at the monster. It was a deep brown insectoid creature with a hard, shiny exoskeleton. Its body was similar to that of a centipede, while the face was more reminiscent of a spider's. Its body had four distinct segments, each with a pair of legs. The front-most segment had eight round, greenish eyes, and bared five sets of pincers that were eagerly dripping a sort of saliva onto the ground as the mandibles clicked and chewed in anticipation. The glistening, shiny green eyes gazed excitedly as the mutant found its next prey. Eric turned heel, and hightailed it out of the room.

* * *

 **My apologies for not uploading this chapter sooner, but I was a little busy over the weekend. Plus, I presume you would rather want quality, rather than rushed work. Yes, each "Prophecy" has a unique meaning to the story, only when the event comes to pass, however, will I reveal their meanings. The lab part stayed mostly the same, only I felt that I had rushed it with the previous fanfiction. Fleeing from the new Specimen, however, will most likely have its own added... challenges... Other than that, there's not much to say here. So, until next time. Don't be a stanger, and leave a review. Agent Archangel, signing out.**


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

* * *

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter Six

Escaping the Lab

Distance was all that mattered. Eric's skin was as wet as if he had just pulled himself from a pool, yet there was no water around, only the dank underground labyrinth he had been caught in. He bolted down the hallway like an Olympic champion at the start gun. He ran, like the winter breeze colliding into inanimate objects and crashing waves hitting the shore line. He didn't know where he was nor did he know where he was heading. He had no idea what time it was, and he had no clue what day. All Eric knew was he had to keep running forward. Not stopping for anything. Not if he wanted to stay alive.

He could hear the gurgling roars of the mutant dead behind him, and Eric pushed harder. The pounding noise of his tennis shoes resonating off the walls of the laboratory with a clanging echo that matched his heart throbbing inside his chest, and with the thick grief and fear he felt as he ran. Suddenly, Eric's instincts screamed at him to duck, and so he did. Not a moment later, the mandibles of the spider monster chasing him descended from a hole in the roof, nearly taking his head off. He didn't let up, however, and kept on sprinting. Aha! Eric grinned, there was a door that looked as if the spider monster would not be able to pass through, and there were no holes in the roof. Smiling like he had won the lottery, Eric slammed the door behind him, relishing in the pained shriek of the monster as it slammed into the door a moment later.

"Better luck next time…" Eric gasped to himself.

With an angry roar, the monster slammed into the door again, making it rattle. The force was sufficient enough to knock him to the ground. Eric picked himself back up and sprinted out the room, not wanting to be around when the door flew off its hinges. Eric finally ended up in the main laboratory. The laboratory was as quiet and cold as a morgue. Even the great machines lay silent. A thin film of dust had settled on everything. On inspection, Eric found that even the computer had been formatted, and the filing cabinets were empty. But curiously, some of the personal effects of the scientists had been left carelessly lying around, like they'd left in a hurry, and did not think to take their cellphones and bags. It was eerie. What had happened to them?

Eric jumped at a shadow, but it only turned out to be more useless equipment. Next to a desk, there was a large bag. He rummaged through the sack and found a flashlight. The beam shuddered on, weak, but not dead.

"Anything's better than nothing." Eric muttered to himself, sifting through the contents again.

There was nothing of use, and so Eric moved on. He tried a couple of doors, but they only seemed to lead into small rooms. The farthest door, and the one with deep gouge marks on it opened up to a hallway. Inspecting the gouge marks, Eric guessed that they were the work of the spider mutant that had been chasing him from before. He dragged his finger along the groove, shivering. Without a word, Eric entered the hallway, leaving the door open just in case.

The stillness of the air seemed to suck even the sound of Eric's footfalls into the nothingness of the abandoned laboratory. It was the kind of silence that falls right before one gets knifed in the back. It sent a shiver down Eric's spine, and he felt his blood chill in his veins. The flashlight began to flicker. He grunted, annoyed at the timing, and banged it against the duct wall, making the metal boom. The sound reverberating through the hallway like some dreaded monster's heartbeat. A few doors were locked up tight, and one just lead to another office-like room. Eric had no choice, but to continue down the hallway to the very end.

The hallway was long, and eerie, with the flashlight only able to illuminate a few feet in front of Eric. He turned left and felt as if the hallway would continue on forever. Finding the lone doorway, Eric grasped the handle to the door, and the house groaned. He hurried inside without hesitation. Taking a look around, Eric noticed a few peculiarities about the lab. The desks and benches in the laboratory could only be described as archaic. They were like something out of the 1950's. But all of the modern equipment in it was state-of-the-art. There were stainless steel centrifuges and PCR machines. There was a huge walk-in refrigerator and several water baths. There was a double door autoclave, and two enclosed areas with flow-hoods. There was a walk-in shower for chemical decontamination, and several canisters of gases. Eric's guess was that it was some kind of biological science laboratory.

The light dimmed again. He shook it, but it did not help. The flashlight gave a last fitful glow and went out, plunging Eric into darkness. Great. Just great. Eric tossed the useless device aside, hoping the dim lights of the emergency lighting wouldn't fail as well. He made his way over to a door with the sign "Emergency Exit" above it, and his heart fell to his stomach. The door was solid metal. Nothing was going to budge it. The surface was flat and shiny like the outside of a stainless-steel refrigerator. There was no handle, no lock, no hinges, nothing to get a grip on. The top and bottom, even the sides, lay so utterly flush with the frame that there was no hope of jemmying it open, even if Eric had had a crowbar, but he had nothing of the sort. Eric glared at the sign. It was taunting him.

"Fuck you." Eric growled as he lightly kicked the door.

Eric picked his way around the lab and found another keycard. He had no choice, but to head further into the laboratory. Walking over to the other door in the room, Eric found a supply shelf. He found a Maglite ML300L flashlight, and some extra batteries. Eric smiled when the beam came on strong. Not only did he have a flashlight, but a potential clubbing weapon. The metal flashlight had some serious heft to it, and no doubt a good swing could bash in someone's skull with ease. Eric pocketed the extra batteries and used the keycard. The door unlocked with a simple beep. Eric gripped the flashlight tight as he entered the next room.

Now he could hear machinery, a soft, rhythmic clattering. He came to a glass panel set in the wall and looked through it into a darkened room where a pallet sat in front of a bizarre, complicated machine that seemed to be sorting hundreds of test tubes, rotating them, counting them, labeling them, and finally delivering them into the pallet to be sorted and moved out of sight. Taking a look around the room, Eric noticed that there was only one door out, situated on the left-hand side of the room. It led to a smaller winding hallway. One that was dark. Luckily Eric had the flashlight.

Upon entering the next room, Eric guessed that he had made his way into one of the archives. Dust collected everywhere as far as the could see, spider webs wove loosely around books, dirtied shelves, and stands, Busted lamps hung from weathers, braided wires that were embedded into to cracked ceiling. The ground was littered with dirt, glass, books, and torn paper. Dust floated lazily in the air causing Eric to have a difficult time breathing, and every step put more of it in to the air. He put his shirt over his nose and mouth, and made his way to the exit. The paint around the door peeled like parched soil. Eric reached for the doorknob and paused. There were letters formed in violent strokes... 'DO NOT...' Yet Eric had no choice. As the door swung wide open, a stench flooded out, the smell of something, or someone, rotting.

The pale lights flickered, casting an ominous glow throughout the hallway, and causing shivers to ripple across Eric's body. He the source of the stench a moment later. The woman on the floor was lifeless. Her body was slumped over, half-sitting, half-laying on the cold linoleum floor. The corpse was almost devoid of skin and pitted by burrowing insects. And the smell… The smell was the most disturbing thing Eric had ever sniffed. It was a blatant her bowels had been released, and all too soon. Eric turned away as his stomach heaved, nostrils filled with the smell of rotting meat, and a tinge of sickening sweetness.

Without eyelids the milky blue eyes stared into the frozen sky while the lip-less mouth hung open. This was worse than what he had encountered in the hell maze. All of that was designed to be sickening and overly disturbing, so much so, that in fact, Eric felt that it was just too disturbing to have any sense of true realism. Here, it was much worse. The woman's death wasn't a part of the laboratory. She was there only because nobody had been around to dispose of her body.

Eric skirted around the body, expecting it to jump up at any moment and start chasing him. In his distraction, he tripped over another corpse. Where there had been smooth skin was torn muscle and blood, as raw as any carcass at the butchers. Eric began to hyperventilate. There was too much death… Eric felt the panic begin like a cluster of spark plugs in his abdomen. Tension grew in his face and limbs. His breathing became more rapid, shallower. He struggled up and came face to face with another corpse. The dead man lay on his back, not three feet beyond the radius of the door, in a pool of blood that was almost dried and gave the room a sickly-sweet butcher shop odor.

Eric began to run. Something snagged Eric's leg and he shot forwards, the flashlight leaving his hands as they slapped on something slippery. The man's intestines spewed onto the floor in pinkish brown coils. Eric gagged as he looked down, noticing that he had placed his hand on the man's lower intestines. It was all too much as Eric scrambled up.

The nausea clawed at his throat, and Eric tried to force down the bile, but it was too late. Chunks of partially digested food spewed out of his coughing, choking mouth. His stomach kept on contracting violently and forcing everything up and out. Splattering everything onto the floor. Eric's face was white and dripping bile, sweat, and tears. He lurched forward and sunk to his knees, spewing up more of his stomach all over. The pungent stench invaded his nostrils and Eric heaved even though there was nothing left to go. He couldn't take it anymore, and Eric ran. Anywhere. But there was death everywhere…

The thoughts were accelerating inside his head, now no more than jumbled nonsense of pure panic. Eric wanted them to slow so he could breathe, but they just wouldn't. Eric's breaths came out in gasps and he felt like he would black out. The room spun about. Eric saw the door. But the door was too far away, it's too far away, it's too far away. Eric stumbled, scraping his shin on the floor. Too far away... blackness... creeping blackness... An invisible hand clasped over Eric's mouth. He wanted to scream, but nothing came out. An equally ghastly hypodermic of adrenaline pierced his heart, unloading in an instant. He felt his ribs heaving as if bound by ropes, straining to inflate his lungs. Eric's head was a carousel of fears spinning violently out of control, each one pushing his mind into blackness. He wanted to run. He needed to freeze.

Clothes and hair, slick with perspiration, clung to Eric's skin. Sweat rolled down Eric's skin in thick, salty beads. His skin felt like it was roasting. Tears blinded Eric as he sprinted down the hall, running as quickly as his legs could carry him, bolting down the hallway way like the devil himself were after his soul. The pounding noise of his tennis shoes resonating off the walls of the hallway with a clanging echo that matched Eric's heart throbbing inside his chest with the thick grief and fear that he felt as he ran. wheezes as her burning lungs gasp for air. He did not stop until his panic attack had lessened. His legs felt numb and unsteady, painfully sore. Eric's throat felt dry, so uncomfortably dry and tight.

Eric shook his head. He wanted to give up, to just end his torment. He wanted to lie on the floor and give up. No more. But something inside Eric pushed him on. No. He would not quit. Eric clung to his best trait. Perseverance. No matter how hard things got, Eric always made it through. This would be no different. He took a step. Good. He took another step. Better. He pushed the dark thoughts aside and began to walk towards the next room. He could do this. He would survive. He entered the next room with renewed determination.

Every footfall echoed around, not loudly, but enough to give away Eric's position to anyone who happened to be concealed in here. Uh oh. There was a hole in the roof… For a moment Eric considered skirting around the edges, then he stopped - stopped moving, stopped breathing, while his heart sped up to Olympic sprinter rate. The monster was already in the dark room, but it did not seem to see him. Eric instantly flicked the light off on the flashlight and tiptoed his way to a small table, crouching down to conceal himself. He guessed that the monster had no sense of smell, otherwise he probably would have already been located.

An idea came to mind. If the monster could barely see, and most likely couldn't smell. It's hearing had to be how it located its prey. Taking a battery out of his pocket, Eric checked the room. Aha! There was a glass cabinet a few feet to his left. Taking aim, Eric chucked the battery as hard as he could. A moment later, the air was suddenly rent by the sound of breaking glass. With a horrific screech, the spider mutant scuttled over to the cabinet while Eric slunk to the next desk, closer to the door. Eric suddenly hid underneath the table, pressing up against the back as the spider mutant began to pace the room, breezing past him. Too close… Eric slipped from behind his cover and made his way to the door. He was almost home free… closer… closer… CRACK! Glass shattered beneath Eric's shoe, and the monster turned towards him with a hissing shriek.

Eric bolted out of the room as fast as he could, the click-clack of the scuttling monster's talons bouncing off the walls all around him. Pushing my arms back and forth, Eric jetted to his destination, the door at the far end of the hall. Eric's heart beat frantically. All or nothing. Fail and his whole body would pay the price. He looked back and lobbed the flashlight. It hit the spider dead on in the face, causing it to falter and stumble. That was all Eric needed. He sprinted to the door, slamming it behind him. Three more rooms, and Eric was confident that he had lost the spider.

The layout of the mansion had reverted back to its original, default look. With a grin, Eric rounded a corner. "Screeeee!" A cardboard cutout screamed as it popped out. Eric yelled in both fight and anger as his eyes saw the cutout, but his mind reacted to the noise. The cutout depicted a smiling ghost. He was being mocked. White knuckles from clenching his fist too hard, and gritted teeth from effort to remain silent, Eric's hunched form exuded an animosity that was like acid - burning, slicing, and potent. He stormed past the cutout. The next room he entered had a faded and torn tapestry that hung from the south wall, and a table on the east. There was a note on the table.

" **I don't know how much longer I can go on... I haven't seen any of my previous notes, so that means either I'm getting somewhere, or someone is taking them."** Eric read. Well, that didn't last long. He put the note down and continued into the next room. A small hallway branched off to the right, and Eric kept on walking. "BLING!" another cardboard cutout caused him to recoil back in fear. Eric growled at the cute cutout of a cat. Eric stomped past it, giving the cutout the finger. These things were beginning to piss him off to the max. He proceeded through the next door and into the next room. This room was much different than those before. To his left, Eric could see another room through a doorway without a door. The doorway in front of him led off into a hallway. Eric took the door on the left. The room again was nothing special, and he tried the door to his left. No use, it wouldn't budge. Eric tried the next door and ended up in a hallway.

"No. No. Don't even think about it." Eric snarled to the hallway.

Cautiously waiting for a cutout, Eric walked through the hall. Nothing happened. Eric didn't relax until he had left the room. The next room he entered had a small table, a chair, and a skull in it. Eric breezed by, wanting to get to the elevator. He was too tired to care anymore. The hall Eric entered twisted and turned. "SCREEEE!" A cardboard cutout of a bar of soap with a smiley face launched out at him, causing his heartrate to skyrocket. That sent him over the edge.

Red. Everything went red. Eric's vision blurred as a flame curled in the pit of his stomach. Waves of fury rolled off him as the blood rose to his cheeks.

"Fuck! You!" Eric shouted lividly, smashing his fist onto the cardboard.

Apparently, the cutout was more durable than it looked, as Eric's knuckles left a bloody streak on it. He didn't care. Without a word, without another glance, Eric left the cutout. He tried the room to his right, and found the door to be stuck, so he entered through the doorway across from where he had entered. He passed through a short hall and came up to two doors. Eric tried the door on the left. There was a note on the wall. Eric tried to make out the writing, but it had faded. There was nothing else in the room, and so he backtracked. The door on the right led him to the next room. The next room Eric entered was another subterranean elevator.

"Finally!" Eric groaned.

Exhausted both physically and mentally, Eric flopped down onto the bed with a deep sigh. He decided to rest for a bit and snuggled under the covers. Passing out immediately, unaware that someone was watching him from the shadows…

* * *

 **Sorry for the delay, this chapter is a double upload, since I've been busy all week.** **Other than that, there's not much to say here. So, until next time. Don't be a stranger, and leave a review. Agent Archangel, signing out.**


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter Seven

The School

Exhausted both physically and mentally, Eric flopped down onto the bed with a deep sigh. He decided to rest for a bit and snuggled under the covers. Passing out immediately, unaware that someone was watching him from the shadows. It started with a slight shimmer, as if the air in front of her was being warped and twisted.

At first Spooky was no more than a chill in the air, a shimmer of mist, but her form began to solidify. She looked like a human cut out of colors that weren't right. Where she moved, the things behind her appeared bowed, as if looked at through a mild fish-eye lens. Spooky floated through the air in an unseen breeze, her dark hair billowing and bushing as though she were slowly swimming under water, her dress wafting lightly. Spooky slowed to a stop directly above Eric, hovering over his sleeping form like a blanket, so close that their noses almost touching. Eric's breath steamed in the air, and goosebumps formed on his arms.

Spooky sat there frozen, suspended in the air, her gaze unwavering and unabashed. She eagerly drank in the sight of Eric's sleeping body, and silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. The silence was like a gaping void, demanding to be filled with sounds, words, anything. The silence stretched thinner and thinner as Spooky watched Eric sleep, like a balloon blown big, until the temptation to rupture it was too great to resist. Spooky hummed a small tune to herself, it sounded irresistibly sweet, yet haunting.

Still humming her ghostly lullaby, Spooky gently rearranged Eric's body into a more comfortable position before she tugged the blankets out from underneath him, softly draping them over him. Gently stroking Eric's hair, Spooky floated down beside him, kneeling next to the bed. It was almost out of a scene from a movie. Spooky continued watching Eric sleep. Light snores wheezed up from him, and the intense scowl on his face had finally faded away. He seemed so peaceful.

The corners of Eric's mouth twitched into a small smile, and he let out a pleasant sigh. For once, his sleep was undisturbed by nightmares. Being the ever curious being she was, Spooky dove into Eric's mind to see the dream for herself.

In Eric's home was the scent of lavender, the delicate blooms in one of his mom's old jam jars. He had never aspired to have a large home, preferring cozy and friendly over lavish and vacant. The house was Elizabethan, with wooden panels along the corridors, ornate chandeliers, and oil paintings of old bearded men in tunics and ruffs. The stairs led down into a tall galleried room with a rug spread out over flagstones and a fireplace big enough to park a car in. A long polished wooden table had been set for four.

Spooky whirled around as Eric burst in through the front door, his body sweaty and his hair matted. His clothes were torn, and he looked like he had been through hell. Eric looked horrified, and for a moment, Spooky thought she had been spotted. Then she noticed Eric staring at something behind her. Turning to look at whatever Eric was staring at, Spooky felt a sense of dread. The very house had decayed in an instant. It felt so alone, so empty. How long had it been since it heard the laughter of a precious child? How long had it been since it felt the coolness of fresh paint or contained the fragrance of Sunday dinner?

The people inside, save but Eric and Spooky, had withered away into corpses. A pristine dust layer had settled over every surface like dirty snow, not a footprint anywhere, dust bunnies the size of bowling balls tumbled across the floor boards toward unseen skittles, and free papers piled up to the letter box and cascaded all the way to the foot of the rough wooden stairs. Old tea cups lay on a coffee table thickly encrusted with dried up mold, dust covered all of the mirrors, and the strong smell of mildew nearly made even Spooky gag.

She followed Eric through the stale air, thick with dust, and shafts of light bursting through gaps in the boarded-up windows. There was absolute silence, not even the hum of a refrigerator, the houses only occupants weaved had their webs between the spindles of the stair banisters, and from the ceiling to the wall, old cobwebs billowed in the draft. Eric kept on walking, the stairs creaking and groaning with each step.

But after all, the attic was not the most terrible part of the house. It was the dank, humid cellar which somehow exerted the strongest repulsion on us, even though it was wholly above ground on the street side, with only a thin door and window-pierced brick wall to separate it from the busy sidewalk. We scarcely knew whether to haunt it in spectral fascination, or to shun it for the sake of our souls and our sanity. For one thing, the nauseating odor of the house was strongest there; and for another thing, we did not like the white fungous growths which occasionally sprang up in rainy summer weather from the hard earth floor.

Eric turned back to run away from the room but was met face to face with the corpses of his family. Their coal-black eyes so black and deep, it was as if all of the light in their eyes had been snuffed out. Leaving only malicious darkness. With a scream he scrambled back.

"You can't ever leave." They hissed in unison, other voices crawling and whispering underneath theirs.

Suddenly Spooky was ejected from the dream as Eric was abruptly brought back into reality. His eyes snapped open and his eyelashes faintly batting against his lids when he blinked. Spooky hid underneath the bed with a twisted smile, fighting the urge to laugh. Eric groaned as he got out of bed, brushed his teeth with the toothbrush and toothpaste that he had packed, and then pushed the button on the far end of the wall. The elevator groaned as it began its descent, Spooky hovering in the same spot as the elevator left without her. Then she laughed. It was a cruel, mocking laugh.

The laugh came from Spooky like a newly sprung leak―timid at first, stopping and starting. She wasn't done yet though, from deep inside her chest came a great shaking motion and her face muscles grew tight. In moments Spooky's laugh was more like a busted water main arching into the brilliant summer sky soaking everything around her with unrestrained gales. Her laughter died out and in her arrogant triumph, she smirked - just a small pouting of the lips; a narrowing of the eyes and a tilting of the head. She floated up to her observation room and began checking the computer feeds.

"Your obsession with him is soon becoming a problem." The figure in the darkness told Spooky.

Spooky froze for a moment. She absolutely hated her accomplice's tendency to appear at the most inopportune moments. Then there was his voice. It was like the darkness itself was talking, and only conjuring an avatar barely visible to act out the motions.

She slithered a flat smirk through crooked lips. "But think of what I can do to him now."

"Did you stumble upon something useful?" The figure asked, his ire lessening. "Do tell me if I am wrong, while the boy was sleeping, you took a peek at his dreams, and found something interesting."

"Something I can use to cripple his hopes and dreams." Spooky sneered to the shadows.

"Be careful not to break him." The figure warned sternly. "I still have much use for the boy."

Spooky returned to her monitors, ah, there Eric was. He navigated a small fog maze with ease. The next room was much less complex, a break from the hell Eric had to endure, and he took a flight of stairs down to the next door. He ended up in a very small hallway, with a door on his right and a door on his left. The door on his right was locked, so Eric sighed and took the door on his left. Eric traversed into the next room, and the hairs on the back of his neck and on his arms stood at attention. Something was wrong.

The room seemed… darker… in a way. The entrance hall was roomy, airy and eerie. An uneasy breeze blew down the corridor and grasped Eric with it chilly touch, carrying the faintest sound of whispers. Its fingers circled around his body, tenderly fondling every inch of him, pulling his shoulder's tight together as he huddled into himself for warmth. Eric spied a note on the table in front of him, and a door to his left. Every step he took was met by a discordant shriek from the worm rotted floor boards.

" **This was such a surprise. That there would be another entry. Another actual entry."** Eric read, cautiously glancing over his shoulder. **"One I could admire. But then as suddenly as it came, it left. And now you disband. Your influence and inspiration will never leave me."**

"The fuck?" Eric put the note back down, confused and creeped out.

He immediately went for the door but could not open it. It wasn't locked. It was jammed shut. He had no choice but to go down the hallway now. With a heavy sigh and taking out the flashlight for extra lighting and protection, Eric crept down the hall. Turning on the flashlight, Eric swallowed hard, a lump forming in his throat. The light was dim, too dim to make out anything more than a few feet in front of him. Eric sighed again, at least he had a weapon. He turned around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. He was now in the same room as before.

Turning around to go back, Eric bumped into a brick wall. There was no turning back. Eric tried the door again, but it was still jammed shut. Perturbed, Eric began to walk a little faster. Loop after loop, Eric's anxiety grew and grew. He felt the panic begin like a cluster of spark plugs in his abdomen. Tension growing in his face and limbs and his breathing became more rapid, more shallow. Another loop. The thoughts were now accelerating inside Eric's head. He wanted them to slow so he could breathe, but they wouldn't. Another loop. Eric's breaths came in short in gasps and he felt like he would black out. His heart hammered inside his chest like it belonged to a rabbit running for its skin. Another loop. Eyes wild and unfocused, Eric began to clench his fists, ready to attack.

Something wasn't right, something was coming. He could feel its presence behind him. Breathing down his neck. Another loop. An invisible hand clasped over Eric's mouth; an equally ghostly hypodermic of adrenaline piercing his heart, unloading in an instant. Eric could feel his ribs heaving as if bound by ropes, straining to inflate his lungs. Another loop. Eric's head was a carousel of fears spinning out of control, each one pushing his mind into blackness. He wanted to run; he needed to freeze. Another loop. Sounds that were near felt far away and Eric began to shut down completely. He froze in the middle of the hallway, squeezing his eyes shut, trembling.

There was nothing after him. There never was anything after him. The room was designed to make him paranoid. Though he could still hear each of his breaths, rasping just the same as when he had the flu – Eric slowly began to calm back down. Now that he was calm, Eric was sure that the door was now unlocked, and had been so for the past few loops. Smiling with relief, Eric rounded the corner. A tall figure ran Eric with a bellowing screech, and he screamed in terror as it phased through him. Scrambling to the door, Eric slammed it open and raced down the room to the next door, entering a small hallway.

Eric traveled through the small hallway and saw the brain in the jar again. Bubbles floated up from the bottom of the tank, and the massive brain gently bobbed up and down, its tentacles swaying as if they were in a calm breeze. This time, a layer of frost had covered the glass, and parts of the walls. Something inexplicably drew him to the brain in the tank. Step by step, Eric drew closer and closer, raising a timid hand out in front of him, his mind dull and his actions barely his own. No! Eric ran from the room, slipping on the slick floor.

 _Eric._ A woman whispered. No. He would not listen. Eric kept on running. _Eric._ Eric hesitated. There was something about the woman's voice. _Eric…_ He opened his eyes, and…

"Now, now." A woman chastised him. "It's not often I get such a cute specimen…"

She had an alluring, lasciviously sultry voice most woman would die for, and some kill their own families for. Eric nervously turned around to find a voluptuous woman wearing a thigh-length stainless white lab coat hiding a green sweater and a blue shirt. She also wore a short black dress and grey leggings under it. The woman looked over his form with a less than appropriate stare. Just from the look alone, Eric already felt completely violated.

"W-who are you?" Eric asked the lascivious woman.

"Ah, me…" The woman chuckled. "I am a Fake Somebody and a Real Nobody. The question shouldn't be who I am, but rather what I want with you…"

"What do you want with me?" Eric stammered, losing sight of the doctor as she walked behind him.

Pain stabbed his neck, something sharp had poked him. Eric tried to turn his head to see what the doctor was trying to do to him but found himself paralyzed on the spot. His whole-body rigid, Eric felt as stiff as a board. His jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, darting around in horror. The female doctor whirled back into view, holding an Xacto-knife in her hand, Eric's face barely twitched as fear tried its hardest to bubble up, but his eyes were wild with terror.

"Mmmm, that's it, that's a good boy." The female doctor leered at Eric. Now he was truly terrified. "That's just the reaction I was looking for…"

His fingers twitched as he tried to move his arms, his toes curled as he tried to move his legs, but there was nothing he could do. The Xacto-knife sliced through his shirt, exposing his chest to the chilling air around him. A red marker touched the tip of his bellybutton. Eric tried to scream, Eric tried to run. Eric's breaths came in short in gasps and he felt like he would black out, his heart jackhammered inside his chest. Eyes wild and unfocused, Eric's fingers clenched into fists, ready to attack, but his arms would not raise.

"Ahh… that look…" The female doctor breathed, her red lips inches from Eric's. "That's it my dear boy. Panic. Struggle."

The doctor began to trace the marker up along his chest. She took her time, slowly tracing over each abdominal muscle with precision. Her marker slid up over Eric's ribcage, and a little moan escaped the doctors plump red lips. Eric tried his hardest to move, but his body still would not respond to him. His jaw gnashed and his teeth ground, but no sound came out.

"Mmm, I'm going to enjoy this." The doctor licked her lips, the seductive tone and arousal in her voice causing goosebumps to raise on Eric's arms. "It's been a while since someone so cute has come wandering these halls…"

The marker diverged off of its straight line, running over one side to the collar bone and then to the other after that. Eric realized he was moments away from being an unwilling participant in this twisted lady's autopsy, and then the tip of the Xacto knife touched the base of the line. Eric trembled in fear now. Wait… His arms!

Eric's arm lashed out, grabbing the doctor's wrist. She stumbled back with a sharp cry of shock, and Eric glared as he took the Xacto-knife from the doctor. Now he had the drop on her. Or so Eric thought. His body once again refused to move, and the most he could do was sit and glare at the psychotic, seductive doctor.

"I love how cold and focused your eyes are…" The doctor whispered sensually, as she and the world around Eric began to fade away. "I look forward, no, I can't wait for the day those bright eyes of yours will be wide with agony…" She faded away, yet her echoing voice remained, a ghostly whisper on the wind. "It's coming Eric… it's coming…"

Eric stumbled back from the glass tank and scrambled away. Cold sweat dripping off the tip of his nose. It was only a hallucination. Eric sighed in relief. He shivered and felt a breeze pass by his chest. Looking down, a lump formed in Eric's throat as he realized that his shirt had been cut open, and he then noticed the words "COME BACK SOON" had been written on his chest. Eric stumbled and tripped as he left the room in a blind panic, scraping his hands on the floor. He didn't stop sprinting until he came up to a metal door.

Eric slowly opened the metal door, which let out a tired old groan as the hinges protest. His heart stopped in his chest. The next room was dark, and so Eric turned on his flashlight. The cone hardly illuminated his surroundings but was still just enough for him to make out the metallic shapes of school lockers. The halls were dressed in black and white, and the tiles are a checker board. The whole building sent a chill down Eric's spine, and reminded him of something out of his nightmares. Laughter reached his ears, and Eric's flashlight began to flicker.

* * *

 **Greetings everyone, I would like to apologize with the delay. A massive storm had hit my town, and unfortunately, taken down the power grid with it. My condo had been without power and air conditioning since last Thursday, and without power, there was no internet as well. I could only upload this chapter now since the power and air conditioning finally came back.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

* * *

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion:

Chapter 8

The Ghosts in the Halls

The door opened with a horrendous, echoing groan, and Eric flinched in response to the noise. If anything had currently been sleeping, or hadn't known of his arrival, it did now. Eric shone his flashlight on the wall. More lockers, but now interspersed with metallic doors. The air was different here. The stillness of the air seemed to suck even the sound of Eric's footfalls into the nothingness of the empty school. Cold stalked him through the hallway like a specter of death, tearing into his heart and turning his blood to icy sludge. Eric's muscles began to ache and grind like the cogs in an old machine.

Eric tried the door on his left, only to find that it was locked shut. The door on his right, however, opened. It opened all on its own with a squeal, metal hinges long ago rusted. Whatever was here, was most definitely aware of his presence. Eric didn't want to go in, but knew that he had no choice in the matter.

In this lone room was a camera, covered in old blood and lying on the floor as if someone had abruptly dropped it. Abruptly, a chill rose up his spine, making him shiver. Something was here with him and he could feel it. Eric whipped around. Sounds of hushed whispering seemed to be erupting and spilling from the peeling walls. Was he going crazy?

Yet it felt nothing but real and absolute to Eric. A breath so hoarse and so faint echoed around him, coming from the south of the room. He slowly turned his head over his shoulder and the whispering stopped. The air chilled to ice and his labored breathing became the only sound... it… something… was hanging from the ceiling, crawling ever so slowly towards him, dark and brooding. Eric's breath began to mist.

Creak. Crrk. Creak. Crrk. Crreakk.

Something was with him, but he couldn't see it.

Creak. Crrk. Creak. Crrk. Crreakk.

Eric picked up the camera, fumbling about as his numb fingers refused to respond properly.

Creak. Crrk. Creak. Crrk. Crreakk.

It was drawing closer. The cold was unbearable.

Creak. Crrk. Creak. Crrk. Crreakk.

Eric reached out, holding the camera in his trembling hands.

Creak. Crrk. Creak. Crrk. Crreakk.

Flash! The room lit up for a brief moment. From the blackness came noises no living thing could ever make. It perhaps was once alive but rendered into a spirit that contorted with pain, anger, hatred... The scream tore through Eric like a great shard of glass. He felt his eyes widen and pulse quicken, his heart thudding like a rock rattling in box. The scream came again, desperate, terrified... human. The blood drained from Eric's face, before he was even aware of making a conscious decision, his legs were pounding furiously to the door, ears straining for more sounds, more clues as to where it had come from. Eric slammed the door behind him and the chill in the air disappeared, his breath no longer misting.

Moving away from the door, Eric walked the hallway with his dying flashlight. Lockers lined the left side of the hallway and there was a corner at the end of it. Step after step echoed in the hallway, the next door he tried squeaked open, but even that felt muffled by the oppressive silence hanging in the air. He coughed as dust fluttered up in front of his face, fanning it away with a wave of his arm.

Eric found a note next to a chalkboard but was unable to read it. The note had to have been written in either Chinese or Japanese. Eric couldn't tell. There were also a few post-it notes on the chalkboard with indecipherable writing on it as well. Eric turned around and nearly died of a heart attack. Black, haunting specters lined the room. They sat at the desks like silhouettes of former humans, their baleful gazes fixed upon the intruder. Fumbling with the old camera, Eric took a picture of the specters. Flash! Big mistake. They were now standing up. Eric quickly backed out of the room and slammed the door shut.

He quickly walked to the next set of doors and tried the one on his left again. This one opened, and Eric figured the door on the right would be locked. It seemed that he was meant to investigate these rooms, no matter what them was inside. There were less specters in this room than the others, but something seemed wrong with them. They flickered like dying lights, and Eric's breath misted in the chilled air.

There was a key on the farthest desk, a lone specter sitting calmly within it. Eric edged closer and closer, taking caution to avoid touching the flickering specters near him. The specter at the desk looked up at him, and he froze in his tracks. The shadow was female in shape, but there were no real discernable features. Eric edged closer, cautiously sticking his hand out towards the key. The specter watched him but remained still. Eric snatched the key and jerked back. He stumbled into another specter and pain filled is body. The specter shrieked and vanished, leaving Eric sweating and lying on the ground in pain.

"Fuck…" He cursed as he shakily picked himself back up off the floor. "Fuck…"

The specters were still staring at him, only now, they were standing. Patient. Calm. Waiting. Eric scrambled out of the room as fast as possible, not wanting to disturb the ghosts any more than he already had. The room across had a note on a desk. Luckily, there wasn't a shadow sitting at it. Eric picked up the note and read **"Matsuri never came to class today, I hope she made it home okay."**. That did _not_ bode well at all. Eric gently set the note back down and looked up. A shadow screamed straight into his face and lashed out at him. It was the kind of scream that made blood run cold. It pierced the brain and ignited some primeval pathway. Adrenaline surged through Eric's veins, fight or flight, stand or run, be a hero or be a coward.

Eric ran through the doorway, not bothering to close the doors. Why bother when ghosts could simply just phase through the walls? He found himself at a T-intersection and took a left, entering another classroom. The chill in the air was gone. What the hell was that? Eric took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Were these people that had perished in this mansion before? How long had he been down here? Would he _ever_ get out? No! Eric shook his head. No use in thinking like that. He kept walking, his footsteps echoing in the halls. Tap! Tap! Tap! Squish. The stench of blood hit his nostrils.

Looking down, Eric's face paled. Fresh blood lined the floor as if a bleeding body had been violently torn away from where it stood.

"Ew…" Eric shuddered as he stepped out of the blood.

There was a sound in the air. At first it was nothing but a deeper moaning to the caustic air that swept through the building. The sound wound itself around Eric's ears and began to change, like a terrible lullaby. Then from that background of sound that ebbed and flowed just like waves on sand, came words. Eric froze, straining to listen. It was no language he knew, but it hissed as it spoke...

Flash! The dark and shadowy corridor illuminated in light for a split second. The camera let out a small whirring sound. A small photo slid out. Eric anxiously retrieved the photo and fanned it out. Gulping as he stared at the photo of the barren corridor, dingy with only doors and lockers standing parallel to each other, he caught a glimpse of a murky shadow leaping from the wall that was approximately ten feet away. The shadow became an oozy black substance, tar-like and viscous. It moved over the floor, leaving a trail that looked like burnt earth. Eric turned whiter than snow. He wanted to run. Instead, he forced his body to inch forward. What was it? The oozing tar seemed to be coming from one of the rooms.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Eric heard the knocks come in pairs of sixes, three times. He swallowed the lump in his throat. Without warning, the black ooze rose, pulling at his feet. He stumbled backwards, falling in the process. Eric yanked and thrashed his legs, but it was no use. Flash! With a piercing howl, the ooze retreated into the room where it had presumably came from. Warmth filled his body. A presence made itself known. Levitating a foot off the floorboards, a pearly-white translucent object shimmered with a hazy bright blue. Slowly it came into focus like an object looked at through a telescope, but this phantom was close, very close. At first, its whisper was like the soft susurration of the wind in the trees, then as the ghost became clearer, more sharply focused, the whisper became an eerie rasping voice, moaning, groaning. Now Eric could see the form of a woman with a silvery ragged line across her neck and gaunt soulless eyes.

The air froze around Eric, threatening to suck out the air from his lungs and leave him frozen from the inside out. The air warmed back up as she knelt next to Eric. She was beautiful. The ghost put a finger to her lips. Eric would have been terrified, but unlike the others he had encountered, this one had a kind presence. She was gentle in her movements, taking his hand in hers and leading him away from the room. He didn't speak. She didn't want him to. She led him to a metal door, most likely the exit, before staring straight into his eyes.

"As soon as the mark is revealed, the two faced one shall bring the deaths of a million." Her voice was layered with hissing, crawling whispers. "You will survive. You will continue to survive. But you face a fate far greater than death. There is nothing but pain, suffering, and loss ahead of you. But if you can rise above, you will gain much."

The specter vanished with a whisper, the warm comforting feeling replaced with dread and apprehension. Eric shivered as the cold returned as well. He left the rooms behind, only to wind up in the same copy of the hallway. Taking the right door this time, Eric entered another classroom and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. There was nothing inside. No ghosts, no keys, no—Wait! Out of the corner of his eyes, Eric spotted a lone note on a desk. This one read " **Could it really be true? I thought the fairy tales about the ghost that eats children who sneak in after class was just to keep us from disobeying. But Matsuri is still missing…"**. That _definitely_ did not bode well for him. Then he felt it. The cold.

Eric whirled around and braced himself to face another specter, but nobody came. The classroom was still eerily empty. Eric's breath steamed in the air. He walked over to the door and his hand rested on the handle. It was searing cold, and frost had formed over the window. He hesitated. He could feel his pulse pounding in his temples, the blood rushing through his ears. Eric pulled on the door and found it wouldn't budge. He was trapped. He turned back around and nearly panicked. The class was full of specters now. Each and every one occupying a desk, their heads bowed down as if staring at invisible notes.

A muscle twitched involuntarily at the corner of his right eye, his mouth formed a rigid grimace. Eric tried the door again. Ca-chack! The lock remained in place. The cold was beginning to numb his fingers now. Eric looked back to the specters, his breathing rapid and shallow. The specters were looking at him. Eric tried the door once again. Ca-chack! The lock remained in place, with no signs of budging any time soon. Eric panicked now. The specters were standing up. They were coming for him. He was frantic, yelling, scared, banging on the door with his shoulders in a vain attempt to break the lock and force it open. Thud! The specters drew closer. Thud! Eric's lips had turned blue with cold and his teeth chattered. Thud! Closer… Thud! A searing cold hand grasped his arm and Eric screamed. Another grasped his neck, choking off his voice. The cold that had seemed mild at first now numbed his face and extremities.

He could hear their cacophonous voices, no more than hissing whispers. They jeered at him as more and more began to assault him. The biting cold chilled his fingers into clumsy numbness, cold seeped into his toes and spread painfully throughout his feet as if it were his bare feet on the pristine icy whiteness rather than sneakers. His lips turned a more blueish hue and his teeth chattered like a pneumatic drill. Frost began to form on his arms and face, the intense cold suffocating. Then it was gone. The cold. The specters. The ice. All gone. Eric wasted no time in trying the door once again. This time it opened up. He scrambled out of the room, the palm of his hand scraping on the tile floor.

Eric fled through the wooden door on the right, and through the small hallway it led to. He entered a room with a corner, rounding it, and nearly tripping in his fear. Eric only slowed down when he came to a room with a staircase leading down to his right, a few metal doors on his left, and a wooden door in front of him. Eric examined the metal door that had been left open, and immediately regretted his decision.

At first the ghost was no more than a chill in the air, a shimmer of mist, diffuse. Through it the furniture and the wallpaper that peeled with the rising damp became slightly out of focus, like a poorly taken photograph. It wasn't until something closed the door behind him that it congealed into a form, a small child with brilliant white eyes, a silver skin and the smile of a predator. His clothes were odd, like a sailor suit and from one hand dangled a kite, ribbons and all. For a moment all was silent, then the tell-tale click of the door locking.

He was trapped with this specter. It did not look friendly.

Eric took a step backwards. Then the ghoul spoke, and not with the voice of a child but with the rasping tones of an old fifty-a-day smoker.

"Have you come to play?"

His grin became a snarl, baring teeth like a wolf, and he drifted closer without taking a step. Eric opened his mouth to ward off the creature, but all that come out was a rasping laugh. He took the camera out and pointed it at the ghost. That had the effect he desired. The little boy hissed and came to a halt.

"Let me out." Eric told it.

The ghost held still in the air, in a standstill, considering its options. Eric repeated the statement once more, putting his finger on the shutter button. The ghost snarled and lashed out at him, and the camera went off. The ghost retreated as if burned by the light, and the door unlocked. Eric left the room immediately. No more adventuring for clues. He chose to walk down and examined all the metal doors. The key he had picked up didn't seem to work on them, and so Eric went down to the next level.

He took the wooden door on his right and wound back up in a room that looked eerily similar to the one before. A quick trip around the corner only confirmed his suspicions. He needed to find an exit fast, because the windows were beginning to frost over, and his breath was beginning to mist in the air.

Something was coming.

Crack!

The window splintered. It was coming for him.

Flash!

The camera light illuminated the room. It was here.

Flash!

The picture revealed the monster.

The ghost was a female adolescent with long, messy, black hair and pure-white skin. She had large, solid black eyes, an abnormally wide mouth with black lips, and fresh blood around her mouth. The ghost wore a plain, bloodstained, light-gray garment with wrist-length sleeves and a red sash around her waist. Her fingers extended into long sharp claws that were stained blood red. Her legs from the knee down were visible, revealing them to be sickly white in color.

She was invisible to Eric, forcing him to rely on the change in air temperature and the camera to pinpoint where the ghost was. He ran, and the cold began to ebb away. Eric heard a small giggle come from the air just before the temperature behind him began to rapidly chill. Flash! Eric nearly had a heart attack from looking at the picture. The ghost had changed. This time she was visible to the naked eye.

Her mouth was now hanging agape, showing long sharp teeth and a pointy tongue. She also had two extra pairs of twisted arms sprouting out from her back. Her body and head contorted and shook violently. She let out a horrid snarling noise as she reached out for Eric. Pop! The camera fizzled and Eric let out a hiss as the thing burned his hands, forcing him to drop it. More laughter from the ghost.

"Stop." She commanded.

"No thanks." Eric snapped back, taking a left.

Before he knew what happened, a cardboard pop-up sprang out of the wall, knocking him to the floor. He heard the monster closing in behind him, so he quickly picked himself up, and started running again. He cursed at the cutout angrily. Claws sliced at his back, tearing what was left of his shirt and forcing him to run faster. The air grew warmer and warmer, but Eric did not stop. He did not dare look back.

Faster and faster Eric ran, he could see the wooden door, the exit was within reach. A light smile reached his face, as long as he could make it to the door, he would be able to lose the ghost. Closer… Closer… Almost there… His chest burned and his legs felt like searing tires, but Eric did not stop. Almost there! Suddenly a patch of freezing air blasted Eric in the face, forcing him to stumble. With a giggle, the ghost girl phased through the wooden door. She had cut off his only exit. Humming a small tune to herself, the twitching phantom slowly closed in on Eric. He was trapped, unable to reach the stairs in front of him.

"Come here." The ghost girl ordered.

Eric had never heard a more vile, evil, bone-chilling laugher in his life. Steeling his will, he had only one option left.

* * *

 **So, there we have it. I cleaned up the chapter and edited out the previous chapter seven inclusion that had been left behind in the beginning of the chapter. I added more specters to the school, and have decided to use Specimen 4's most disturbing form from the endless mode for her base form since the camera effect would be too hard and to confusing to narrate. With that out of the way, don't hesitate to leave a review. Agent Archangel, signing out. Until next time, dear readers...**


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer in the first chapter._

* * *

Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion: Trial of the Heart

Chapter 9

The Deal

Humming a small tune to herself, the twitching phantom slowly closed in on Eric. He was trapped, unable to reach the stairs in front of him.

"Come here." The ghost girl ordered.

Eric had never heard a more vile, evil, bone-chilling laugher in his life. Steeling his will, he had only one option left. Eric sprang into action. He vaulted over the railing without a second thought. He twisted in the air to avoid landing on his face and chest. Then impact. Crack! Eric felt the bones in his shoulder move in a way they shouldn't, jangled and contorted. He hissed in pain. Knowing his shoulder was broken. Without looking, Eric knew there was blood seeping from skin, that mere seconds ago, had been smooth.

By the time the ghost girl had reached the landing he was on, Eric had already taken off in a full sprint down the stairs, taking them three at a time while clutching his shoulder. It felt like a wasp had decided to sting it over and over, but he grinned to himself. He had the upper hand now. Shit! Eric stumbled to a halt; the next room had a winding floor above what looked to be an endless pit. Eric made a break for it, abandoning caution to the wind. Adrenaline coursed through his system as a fight or flight instinct. In this case, it was more of a "run away with his tail between his legs", but it didn't matter to him, he had to get away. She had caught up to him.

He ran forward, every second barley escaping death. Eric felt as though his blood were on fire. His limbs were moving on their own. He was disconnected from everything but the ever-present sound of his drumming heart. Left turn. Avoiding claws. Right turn. Ducking under a grasp. He didn't even bother closing the door behind him. Eric felt as if his heart was going to tear itself to pieces. The shrill, demonic scream of rage behind him forced him to keep running.

"Come to me, I only wish to save you…"

Eric froze. This again? He turned around to find the ghost girl patiently waiting for him at the door. Her form had returned to normal. No extra arms. No seizure-like movements. She looked like a pale, floating woman. Eric knew this was a farce. She wanted him to hear her voice. She wanted him to stay and listen to her offer.

"All I will find at the end of those rooms is suffering." Eric recited what the beast had told him. "Endless, profane amounts of torment as your soul writhes in agony… Yes?"

"You run towards pain and suffering." The ghost girl calmly opened her arms to him. "Your heart will shatter; your bones will break… and your soul will be forever consumed with misery."

This time, it wasn't her voice speaking. It was the woman from before. The sister of the deer thing that had saved him… It spoke through the ghost as if it were a puppet. But why? Why was she so interested in "saving" him? Why go out of her way for him? It made him nervous, and that was the last thing he needed right now to survive this damn house.

"So, I have been told." Eric steeled his nerves. "I will make it through."

"You are doomed, boy." The ghost girl mocked him.

Her voice sounded hollow. Strange. Alien even. The voice was threatening and yet devoid of emotion. There was no rage, no anger, no hate; just cold logic bordering on dogma.

"Whatever you say." Eric shrugged nonchalantly to let her know she wasn't going to psyche him out. "I'll keep running as long as I'm alive."

Eric turned back towards the door. He didn't think the ghost girl was going to chase him anymore. The sharp grasp on his shoulder, however, proved him dead wrong. The blood in his veins chilled, and frost began to settle on his body. The ghost girl's voice rasped into his ear.

"Confidence born of ignorance. Your words are as empty as your future." Rotting, stinking breath assaulted Eric's nostrils but he found himself paralyzed. He could not gag. He could not flinch. "Your striving is insignificant. Let your death be the same."

With a small chuckle that could only be described as "bone chilling", the ghost girl faded away, leaving Eric terrified. He quickly sprinted out of the room, wanting to leave it far behind. He ran, and ran, and ran, not daring to stop until his legs nearly gave from exhaustion. Eric placed a hand against the wall to steady himself. Sweat dripped off his forehead onto the ground. Something seemed… off…

Everything seemed muted. As if someone had adjusted the colors on a T.V screen. His breath misted, coming out in blasts of white steam as the air grew colder, more menacing. There were two doors in the hallway. One wooden door at the end in its rightful place, and a metal door in the middle. It looked different from the other doors. There was nothing around the door to indicate it was a trap. No blood. No rust. No message.

Eric should have walked away. He wanted to walk away. But he was far to curious.

Eric flattened himself against the wall next to the door, a shaking hand gripping the cold metal doorknob. He yanked the door open, but nothing came flying out. A quick peek around the corner into the room revealed that it was a long hallway. It seemed out of place for the mansion. Its design different than anything he had seen.

The walls were a muted, pale grey mottled with bumps and bruises like they were made of solid concrete. Neglect ran rampant through the hall, with mold and mildew piling in some areas and cobwebs hanging on the ceiling like white patches of silk. Eric looked down and noticed that there were scrape marks along the floor, as if a table or a chair had been dragged along it, scratching the stone surface. Nope. This was already a bad idea. Going down the hallway would be a terrible one. Eric whirled around to leave the door behind and stopped dead in his tracks.

Though he had turned a complete 180 degrees, Eric was still somehow facing the hallway…

The blood in his veins turned to ice and a lump formed in his throat. Something was terribly wrong. No! It had to be an illusion! Eric closed his eyes and calmed his breathing. He turned around again to re-orient himself and stare into the real hallway and found that the door behind him had been replaced by a concrete wall. Eric ran his hand along the wall. Yep. The was solid and very real. He had no choice now. He had to walk down the hall and face whatever horror awaited him for his utter lack of caution.

As Eric walked down the hallway, he noticed that he didn't seem to be making any progress. It was as if the hallway were elongating faster than he could catch up with, the door always out of reach no matter how fast or slow he walked… His footsteps were muffled and even the sound of his own breathing fell flat once it had left his mouth…

The walls began to shake and shudder as reality seemed to behave in a way that made no sense. Back was forward, and forward was… there was no forwards. Only back. Muffled voices, too quiet to make out filled the hallway as alien-like equations flew at him from the other end of the hall. Scientists, doctors, people walked from side to side, notes and chemicals in hand. A nurse rushed through Eric. There was writing on the wall now.

"increased activity in...

se. Subject to availability ar...

n vector at this time. Require...

rent threshold for amgydalic...

remnants in the simulation in despite objections of care"

Something was dead wrong. His body felt strange. Movement felt delayed by a second, as if his brain sent the signals and was… off. Eric's stomach began to heave in a sickly way, and his head was spinning in a way that just made no sense. Or was it the room? Was it even him spinning anymore? It was like the whole hallway just got put on a carousel, slow at first but gaining momentum. Equations, symbols, writing, it flashed and glitched all over the walls.

Eric should have felt the chill. He should have felt the fear. But it felt… muted. Artificial. _Wrong_. It was like some sort of outer body experience. His legs didn't work as he told them. Neither did his hands. Or his fingers. Somewhere, deep inside, Eric knew his brain was sending signals, telling him what to do. Whether or not his body was listening is a different story. He could feel it moving. It can feel it doing what it wants. Could he stop it? Eric already knew the answer to that. It's doing as it pleases.

But why wasn't he in control? Why could he see himself? Something roared in the distance, but it didn't phase Eric. Pssh. Hiss. A… respirator? Then an EKG. Voices again. Muffled beyond recognition. He heard his name float by a couple of times.

Eric tried to walk down the hall, but his legs were telling him otherwise. They were swaying left and right. No matter how many steps he took, he was no closer to where he wanted to be. But where did he want to be? His body was on autopilot.

Walls glitched. Equations jumbled together. Then all went dark.

No… There was something there with him. A door. It opened on its own and Eric walked through. In the darkness stood a man. Though the man had the appearance of a middle-aged, light-skinned male with a tall and thin physique and dark brown hair shaped in a military-style crew cut with a prominent widow's peak, his pale and chalky skin made him seem… strange. Otherworldly… Words and equations bombarded Eric's body as he neared the man.

Staring into his eyes, Eric was shocked to have found nothing inside. Nothing. It was like looking inside a depth of ever-ending darkness combined with a large amount of charcoal being thrown at his cheeks. Eric blinked, attempting to think this was a small side effect of his paranoia, but nothing changed. His eyes were black. Pure black. Small portals of Tartarus just waiting for him to jump in.

"Cleverly done… but… You are not supposed to be here."

His voice stumbled over the words, leaving the sentence short and choppy, as if language were alien concept to the man. It was as if he were trying too hard to be human. And failing. The words bombarding his body had coalesced into twitching cubes seizing and roiling around the man, but more unreadable paragraphs kept bombarding Eric, flying in from behind the man.

"As a matter of fact, you're not. Get back where you belong and forget about all of this."

The man spoke in a slow, raspy, yet commanding manner, with a certain accentuated low-key moroseness to his tone. He would sometimes place unusual stress on syllables, stressing the wrong parts of words, making unneeded pauses, and awkwardly changing the pitch of his voice. Sometimes doing it in the middle of a word.

Everything was covered in glitching equations, paragraphs, and symbols. The man was no exception. The man began to flicker as if he were part of a flip note animation. His movements were choppy, forced. He spoke with static underlying his voice.

"Until we meet again…"

Then Eric was staring at a door. A wooden door. He turned around to find… nothing. His brow furrowed. What had he been searching for in the first place? Something nagged at the back of his mind, a memory wanting to form, but couldn't.

Choking and gargling broke him out of his thoughts a moment later. One of the monsters had decided to start chasing him. His head whipped around and he realized it was the slime monster. It screamed around the corner, claws grasping for him.

"Shit!" Eric cursed.

He ducked and began to scramble away, there was a shrill scream that assaulted his ears. Oh no. The ghost girl had come for him too… Eric raced around the corner and realized his mistake. The hallway immediately slanted downwards via a staircase and, without anything to stop his momentum, Eric fell forward headfirst. He landed with a sickening crunch against the stairs, and all the breath left his body, leaving him gasping for air like a fish. Dread loomed in the back of his mind, and Eric fought to get back up. As he took his first breath, a sharp pain erupted from his right chest. Panicked, Eric tried again, and this time, he could not hold back the scream that accompanied the searing pain in his chest.

He had broken a rib. Possibly several thanks to the fall. He wasn't coughing up any blood at the moment, so that must have meant that none of the rib fragments punctured a lung… yet… Walking was agonizing, running was damn near impossible now. Eric wheezed and gasped, but the adrenaline pumping through his veins began to dull the pain. Fight or flight, with the only option being flight…

Eric sprinted through door after, door, after door, the elevator seemingly never coming any closer no matter how many rooms Eric had ran through. He had already lost count, and at this point, couldn't care any less. He barely noticed the pain he was in, ducking under slices and grasps from both ghouls as they relentlessly pursued him. He leapt over a giant goo puddle and grit his teeth. Faster… Faster!

Eric's heart jackhammered in his chest like a drum solo, his lungs throbbing and spasming, sending constant pain to the right side of his chest. Eric kept running, but he knew his time is up. Out of the corner of his eye, Eric could see something sharp and long coming towards him. It was the ghost girl! He tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late. Her talons cut into his side and Eric screamed, giving away his position, but the pain was unbearable. He stumbled and collapsed to the ground.

He rolled out of the way of her grasp and stumbled back onto his feet. He was _not_ going to die in this accursed mansion! His feet slapped against the floor with practically the grace of a rampaging elephant, the striding, graceful bounds forty rooms earlier had long since disappeared. His rasping throat was as parched as a dead lizard in the desert sun. His head bobbed loosely from side to side with each footfall and his eyes felt heavy in their sockets. Eric was wearing down fast.

His head felt as if someone had shaken it until his brain was thoroughly bruised. Shooting pains stabbed chaotically through Eric's muscles and there was a ringing in his ears. His rush of adrenaline was wearing out, soon, he would pass out. Regardless of being chased or not. He had to push on… He had to keep going.

Eric pitched forward, stumbling over his own feet, his breath ragged and his gaze unfocused. He kept running. He would run until there was no skin on his feet, and then he would crawl until his hands bled. Eric grit his teeth together in determination, his fingernails cutting into his palms. Stopping was _not_ an option.

Another rush of adrenaline coursed through his system as a fight or flight instinct kicked in. In this case, however, it was more of a "run away with your tail between your legs" type of instinct. But it didn't matter to Eric. He had to get away. He knew he would never outrun them. He looked back. They were closing in. He had to make it. He had to make it! The carboard cutout jumpscare barely registered as Eric rounded a corner.

He burst through the door, stumbling and scrabbling back up to his feet. He didn't care what was in the room with him. He sailed over a pit of radioactive green goo, his heels jarring into the cobbled floor as he kept sprinting. Eric vaulted the ornate fence that was blocking his path. The ghost girl exploded out of the wall, latching onto Eric by the shoulders and screaming in his ear.

He tumbled to the ground as he hadn't been expecting to come into contact with anything solid. Eric's legs jerked upwards as his back smacked onto the cold, hard tiles, a ragged squeak tumbling out of Eric's lips as his broken ribs shifted. The resulting action caused the ghost to end up straddling his waist and she reared back with an unholy scream, two more sets of arms popping out of her back. She had made one mistake, however, and that was underestimating Eric's cunning. He had more leverage on her than she did with him, and since she was solid, Eric could do something about it. His fist flung up at the ghost's face, but she caught it by the wrist with one of her many hands, her grip threatening to crush the bones.

Bone-chilling laughter hummed from the ghost as she pressed her face uncomfortably close to Eric's. Oh, she liked this one… he fought with such fervor. It was a shame he had to die now. Her mouth began to open, and open, and open… Opening impossibly wider than what Eric could comprehend as she leaned over his body, a low growl emanating from her throat, ready to engulf him. Thinking fast, Eric bucked his hips upward and immediately rolled to the right, forcing the ghost girl off him.

The ghost girl became ethereal once more to avoid smashing her face into the ground, practically diving into the floor as a result. By the time she had recovered from the surprise and floated back up out of the floor, Eric had already put a good deal of distance between the two of them. This time, however, she did not continue pursuing him. A malevolent, Cheshire grin split her face and a low chuckle forced its way past her teeth. She definitely liked this one. He was clever. She simply loved clever… And though she had given up the chase, the other specimen had not.

Eric ducked under the swipe of its claws, nearly stepping straight into a puddle of goo and dooming himself to a fate worse than death. There! Eric spotted the door, right at the far end of the hallway. He was hobbling now… his pace just barely fast enough to keep from being caught by the slime mutant currently chasing him. Where had the other gone? Eric quickly looked around as he practically shuffled along to the door. The ghost girl was nowhere to be found. Was she waiting for him at the end of the hall? Had she given up? Eric was far to exhausted to care at the moment.

Closer… Closer… He was almost there! The goop monster swung at his back, its sharp talons digging into his skin. Eric yelped and pushed just a little harder. He blasted through the door, his lungs bursting in his chest, tumbling to the ground. He flipped around onto his back to make sure that the monster couldn't enter the room. It had vanished. Eric let out a sigh of relief and picked himself up, wincing as the bones in his ribcage shifted around again.

"You look terrible!"

Eric practically jumped a mile high at the sound of a voice, letting out a startled, girlish scream as he whirled around. Spooky had been standing right behind him. She was so close to him, in fact, that their noses were practically touching each other's. She had to float a couple of inches off the ground to do this, however. His cheeks flushed, not because of the apparent intimacy, but out of sheer mortification. Did he really just scream that high pitched?

"Of course, I do." Eric rolled his eyes. "No thanks to you and your mansion."

He took a step back to put a little breathing room between them, but Spooky just moved closer, keeping the conversation as uncomfortable as possible. Another step back, and Spooky bared down on him. It wasn't scary or malicious, just highly uncomfortable. Why? Why was she doing this? There was absolutely no need for her to be this close to him. It annoyed Eric more than anything. Eric glared at her but Spooky's demeanor changed instantly.

A painful, freezing chill settled over Eric and he realized that he had been mistaking Spooky's cheerful, happy mannerisms for something else. Though she had the appearance of a young girl, she was anything but. This ghost was just like the other monsters trapped in the mansion. Vile. Wicked. Malicious. Eric's breath misted in the air between them and he forced his unresponsive limbs to take a step back.

The malevolent aura radiating out from Spooky felt as if it bore a physical weight, causing the air around the two of them to feel like a thick gel. It seeped through his skin, trying to freeze his very blood. Choking him. Corroding him. Fear crept up in the dark corners of Eric's mind.

"Don't forget. It was _you_ who entered the mansion."

Her malevolent voice sent daggers of ice through Eric's soul. It didn't even sound like Spooky was talking to him anymore. Her voice sounded older, darker even… Eric backed into the wall, barely aware of the pain in his ribcage. Spooky took a step closer, their noses touching. Eric winced. He was cold, colder than he had ever been, his nose slowly numbing to the chill.

A small hand stroked the sides of his face. Eric's lips turned a blueish hue and his teeth chattered like a pneumatic drill. Frost began to form on his arms and face, the intense cold suffocating.

"And let's face it. You won't survive much longer like this. Oh, you'll do a couple more sets of rooms, but one of my pets will get you." Spooky whispered in his ear. "It's hopeless. There's no reason for you to continue."

Though she said that, Eric got the hint that there was something more to this conversation than simply telling him that he was out of luck. She wanted something from him.

"What… what do. what do you— you want from me?" Eric chattered.

"I want to make a deal with you." Spooky declared and the icy cold vanished. "One that will no doubt save your life… for now."

* * *

 **Hello again everyone. As said before I had to take care of a few other personal arrangements and was unable to post for the longest time. A couple weeks ago I had tried posting the stories to the website but kept getting update error messages from the website. They seem to have cleared up now and I will be posting the rest of the chapters by the end of Thursday. Now with all of that out of the way, I can answer some of your questions:**

 **Jcam: I'm finally out of recovery, but unfortunately there are some things that may never go back to normal. I'm not comfortable saying much more about it, but I'll be fine in the long run. I only deleted the two stories to avoid confusion on both my part and new readers. For the MGQ one, it was better to just make a completely different fanfiction than try to salvage 37+ chapters of work.**

 **Big perm: No, Eric does not go shirtless. There is a large cut in it though and he will need a new one.**

 **Alright, with the questions answered, there shouldn't be anything else left. Tune in next time, dear readers, and don't forget to leave a review. Agent Archangel, signing out.**


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